Waves of Consequence Read online

  Waves of Consequence

  Donny Anguish

  Another Page Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 by Donny Anguish

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For my Family

  Contents

  Recap

  Technologies that Shape the Lost Stars Universe

  Character List

  I. Wind and Wave

  1. Saiph

  2. Lin, 2006

  3. Saiph

  4. Lin, 2013

  5. Saiph

  6. Lin, 2016

  7. Saiph

  8. Lin, 2017

  9. Saiph

  10. Lin, 2018

  11. Saiph

  12. Lin, 2019

  13. Saiph

  14. Lin, 2034

  15. Saiph

  16. Saiph

  17. Lin, 2053

  18. Saiph

  19. Lin, 2063

  20. Saiph

  21. Lin, 2064

  22. Saiph

  23. Lin, 2281

  24. Saiph

  II. Closer

  25. Lin, 2411

  26. Saiph

  27. Lin, 2455

  28. Saiph

  29. Lin, 2662

  30. Saiph

  31. Lin

  32. Saiph

  33. Saiph

  34. Lin

  35. Saiph

  36. Saiph

  37. Saiph

  38. Saiph

  Epilogue

  I hope you enjoyed book two of the Lost Stars series!

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Recap

  In the first installment of the Lost Stars series, Saiph Calthari doesn’t realize that his village on Jangali is the most backward places that humanity occupies. He doesn’t know anything about technology or other worlds. He lives a simple life, and though he's plagued with doubts about himself and his disabilities, he enjoys working with the family’s volt animals. But when those they call the Skyfallers attacked and enslaved his village, everything changed.

  Saiph then spent nearly a year in a slave camp before attempting to escape. His bid for freedom failed, and Saiph, along with his friend, Alistair, were sent to the coliseum to die for other's entertainment. When Alistair was killed and Saiph was fighting for his life, he snapped, and his body began to harness a flood of power and energy. His eyes glowed blue. Without knowing it yet, he was the most powerful dynamic alive.

  It's at this point that Saiph's path intertwines with Jon Foster's. At 672, Jon is one of the oldest people alive, and he was one of the first people to take the pill that halted the aging process. As Saiph and Jon work together to free Jangali, Saiph learns of Jon's six-hundred-year tale of love, adventure, heartbreak, and betrayal. He's told the story of how Jon's wife, Ava, committed suicide and how one of his best friend's convinced her to do it. This same friend of Jon's is now the one trying to seize power. Tim (a.k.a. Sargas) has discovered a way to download and upload his consciousness into other bodies, and the only way to stop him is to find one of the servers that stores his mind.

  The end of the first book answered many questions about the Lost Stars universe, but many questions still remain. Will they be able to find a server and stop Sargas? How is Ava still alive? What happened to Warren Winters? Will the Essens keep multiplying until they consume all the stars that humanity depends upon? Keep reading to find out.

  Technologies that Shape the Lost Stars Universe

  1. Boundless

  Boundless was created by Warren Winters and is the genetic therapy that halts the aging process. It changed everything. It allowed individuals, especially Warren Winters, to accumulate wealth and power beyond anything the world had seen before. The natural turnover of power that comes from age and death of those who wield it suddenly stopped. Boundless could also be taken in a limited form, giving people years of halted aging, but not making the effect permeant.

  2. The Essens

  he Essens are bio-mechanical nanobots that humanity created to meet their energy needs. When the Essens reach a star, they begin to multiply at an exponential rate and become so numerous that they surround the star entirely. From there, they absorb the star’s energy and transport it back for human use. The Essens changed humanity forever but for better or for worse is yet to be seen.

  3. Dynamics

  The Essens are bio-mechanical nanobots that absorb a star’s energy and send it back to humanity, but when they contracted a virus, they began to send the energy elsewhere. Since the Essens are partly biological, that part of the virus also infected other organisms, including people. Those individuals who contract the virus are sent the energy of a star and have incredible abilities when wearing an aura suit.

  4. The Gateways

  The Gateways harnessed the power of the Essens to rip open the fabric of space-time and create wormhole-like passages that people could use to traverse the vastness of space. Their creation prompted the expansion of humanity amongst the stars. However, when vast quantities of Essens died off, cutting off humanity's primary source of power, the Gateways closed down. In Saiph's time, they are only reminders of a more prosperous and technologically advanced past.

  5. Quantum Communication

  Using quantum entanglement, humanity has the ability to instantly communicate across any distance. While the physical travel across the Sphere of Humanity is slow and expensive because the Gates between world were shut down, the quantum network at least permits easy communications and has kept the various worlds in close contact with one another.

  Character List

  Boundless Characters:

  • Warren Winters - Warren created Boundless and halted the aging process in human beings. It also made him the richest person in the world. Using his extra time and wealth, Warren became a politician and slowly led the world to a single global entity. During his leadership, humanity experienced a golden age. This is when the Great Technologies were invented, including the Essens, quantum communications, and the Gates.

  • Ava Winters - Daughter of Warren Winters. Wife of Jon Foster. Part of the friend group of five.

  • Jon Foster - Son-in-law of Warren Winters. Husband of Ava Winters. Creator of the Essens. President of Mars. Part of the friend group of five.

  • Lin Gyeong - Part of the friend group of five. Was given a limited version of Boundless, which extended her life by 300 years. This book focuses on her back story.

  • Omar - Part of the friend group of five. Was given a limited version of Boundless, which extended his life by 300 years.

  • Tim - Part of the friend group of five. Was given a limited version of Boundless, which extended his life by 300 years. Tim is also known as Sargas, who has developed a method to upload/download his consciousness into different bodies.

  • Treyges - Travels with Jon Foster and follows his lead. Age is unknown, but he is old enough that other's know that he has taken boundless.

  • Chet - Age is unknown. Mentally unstable. Friends with Jon Foster. Helped Saiph Calthari survive a slave camp.

  Jangali Characters:

  • Saiph Calthari - The first Class G (blue source star) dynamic. Before the infection took hold, he was crippled from a broken leg that healed improperly and from severe asthma. He is religious and follows the Verses and Tenants closely.

  • Rosh Calthari - Saiph Caltahri's father, mentor, and confidant. Rosh was separated from the rest of his family during their enslavement.

  • Roe Calthari - Saiph Calthari's siste
r. Seventeen years old.

  • Milla Calthari - Saiph Calthari's mother.

  • Landon Calthari - Saiph Calthari's brother. Has down syndrome.

  • Ayanda - From the same village as the Calthari family. Very close friendship with Saiph and Roe.

  • Charlotte - Was with Saiph Calthari at the slave camp and was with him during their escape. Saiph eventually took Charlotte to her home near the Temple of the Old Gods (very old buildings that were left behind).

  • Alistair - Saiph's best friend at the slave camp. Alistair hurt himself during their escape and was sent to the Coliseum with Saiph. His death prompted Saiph's Essen infection to trigger is dynamic state.

  • Nico - Was with Saiph Calthari at the slave camp. Escaped with Charlotte.

  The Team:

  • Russ Henson - Mercenary soldier that is partnered with Tokomoto. He is the leader of a company of soldiers and owns the Andhaka that travel with Jon.

  • Tokomoto Takagawa - Partnered with Russ Henson and is an outlier, a name used to designate those who control combat machines remotely.

  • Silvestre Silva - Class A (red source star) dynamic and employed by Jon Foster, who rescued her from the family that abandoned her and found a home for her on Mars.

  • Amira Stent - Amira is 114 years old, but she looks as if she's in her late 30s. The left side of her body also has a lot of scar tissue, though Saiph hasn't found out why.

  • Vincent Cross - Nineteen years old, he was hired by Jon Foster to help create Saiph's aura suit.

  • Sarah - Sarah was killed by Sargas through the dynamic Elean. She was two hundred and eighteen when she died.

  • Ellie - Team doctor. Short, spikey red hair. 45 years old.

  Sphere of Humanity Leaders:

  • Emperor Phylas Anastas - Emperor of the Grecian Empire.

  • Empress Euphraise - Empress of the Askani Empire.

  • Senator Mason - Powerful Senator from Earth. Boundless.

  • Alexi Kozlov - Head of Houze Kozlov. Boundless.

  • President Amelie Bachmeier - President of Andernach.

  • Aoko Kumbuza - Head of House Kumbuza. Boundless.

  • Advik Singh - President of the Asura Republic

  • Member Thiago - Member of the Enlightened Oligarch, which governs Tau Ceti.

  • Member Theresa - Member of the Enlightened Oligarch, which governs Tau Ceti.

  • Member Gerel - Member of the Enlightened Oligarch, which governs Tau Ceti.

  • King Ferdinand - King of Nueva Belleza.

  • Queen Isabella - Queen of Nueva Belleza.

  I

  Wind and Wave

  1

  Saiph

  Saiph stared at the picture of Ava, stunned. “I know her.”

  “You know my deceased wife?” Jon asked skeptically. “In case you forgot, she’s been gone for over two hundred years.”

  They stood in the middle of a vast plain, the grass swaying and glowing gently against the sunset. It was beautiful, much like the rest of Jangali, but Saiph only had eyes for the woman in the picture. It was hard to believe, but he’d definitely seen Ava before.

  “She saved my life at the pulse cannon,” Saiph said. “And she walked by us in the palace tunnels.”

  “Saiph—”

  “I know how it sounds, but I swear that it was that woman,” Saiph said, pointing to the picture of Ava on Jon’s device.

  “You’re serious?”

  “Yes.”

  Jon exhaled slowly. “Look, I don’t doubt that you think it was her. It’s only natural, after hearing what she was like, but I’m sure it was just someone who looked like her.”

  “It was her.”

  Jon shook his head. “Ava’s dead.”

  The setting sun bathed the field of grass in orange light and a pleasant breeze blew around them, but Saiph frowned and took a step back. “You don’t believe me?”

  “You know I trust you,” Jon said, “but what would you say if you were in my—”

  Jon was cut off as an extraordinary clap of thunder filled the sky. It was as if the whole world had shuddered in fear. Saiph looked up, expecting to see dark clouds of disaster, but found distant blooms of explosions instead.

  “No…” Jon said.

  The edge in his voice sent chills down Saiph’s spine. “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “The ship is under attack. Sargas must have given the order.”

  Saiph looked up at the heavens in disbelief. Those blooms of fire were from ships? In space?

  “Treyges!” Jon shouted into his comm. “Are you all right?”

  “Shields are holding and the defensive array has deployed,” Treyges said. “Orders?”

  Jon thought for a moment, then said, “Full attack. Fire everything. Stall them until we can get back to the ship. We’ll make a run for it.”

  “Get my family on board, they’re coming with us,” Saiph said.

  “Saiph, we need—”

  “Just do it!”

  Another day, another life.

  Saiph’s aura burst from his body, and a mist of blue energy surged away from him. He sighed in pain and pleasure as the energy of his body connected with the metal suit. His wounds bled from the summoning. He wondered if he would ever get used to the feeling.

  “What are you doing?” Jon called out.

  “Saving your ship!”

  Jon’s face lit up in realization. “Wait, Saiph, no, you can’t go up there!”

  Saiph smiled as he remembered something his father had told him once. I can do anything, as long as no one can stop me.

  Saiph ordered the energy from his body into the flight systems of his aura, and he shot into the air like a bullet, glowing blue mist trailing behind him. Ava’s appearance had broken the limit of his imagination, and the meaning of a Verse realigned in his consciousness.

  Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not?

  Impossibility was a lie—reality, a farce. He’d come from a place that believed the stars were beyond reach, but they weren’t. He intended to see them for himself.

  Within seconds, Saiph was in the clouds, and the figures beneath him became dots, then nothing. Saiph’s attention was focused upward, though. He couldn’t make out the ships themselves yet, but the explosions that filled the sky like tiny firecrackers were enough to tell him that he’d never seen firepower on this scale before.

  As Saiph reached the lower atmosphere, he realized that this may be the last time he’d see Jangali. He flipped to his back so that he could look down as he left the planet. His heart surged at the sight. The curvature of the planet and the landscape appeared like one of Tokomoto’s three-dimensional maps. It was wondrous and left him breathless and sad. Leaving home was never easy.

  Darkness began to fill the edges of Saiph’s vision, and Jangali became a blanket of blue light in a black sea. He turned back over, breathing hard on the oxygen his aura pumped out. Two small spheres were ahead, lights bursting into existence all around them.

  The closer Saiph got, the more he realized that the spheres weren’t small at all but fantastically immense. He had accepted that nothing was impossible, but he could still marvel at it.

  “What do you think you’re doing!” Silvestre yelled into his comm.

  Saiph winced. “Saving the ship, of course.”

  “You idiot!”

  “All right, all right, no need to be so rude. Can you just tell me which one is the Harain ship and which one is Stargone?”

  “You don’t even know which ship you’re attacking? You realize that you can’t just fire a laser in this fight and hope for the best. That’d be like shooting a pistol at a city and expecting the whole place to crumble.”

  “I haven’t thought that far yet—this was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

  “If you don’t die, I’m going to kill you. You stupid fuc—”

  “I’m getting close, so now would actually be
a good time to tell me which is which.”

  “I don’t know!” Silvestre yelled. “I don’t often see them from the outside!”

  Saiph sighed. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “You’re no good to us dead,” Silvestre said. “This is crazy.”

  Saiph was beginning to lose all confidence when Treyges’s voice came over his comm. “I would usually agree with Silvestre, but we are a bit desperate at the moment. Here’s what you should do…”

  Treyges explained how he should get through the ship’s outer hull and what he should expect on board. Eventually, a nav point popped up over his visor that pointed to a specific location on one of the ships.