HEAVEN’S

WAR

Ace Books by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt

HEAVEN’S SHADOW

HEAVEN’S WAR

David S. Goyer &

Michael Cassutt

Heaven's War _1.jpg

ACE BOOKS, NEW YORK

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2012 by Phantom Four Films and St. Croix Productions, Inc.

Illustration by Steve Karp.

Jacket design by Lesley Worrell.

Jacket illustration by James Paick.

Text design by Tiffany Estreicher.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors’ rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

FIRST EDITION: July 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Goyer, David S.

Heaven’s war / David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt.—1st ed.

p.         cm.

ISBN: 978-1-101-58100-1

1. Human-alien encounters—Fiction. I. Cassutt, Michael. II. Title.

PS3607.O925H46 2012

813’.6—dc23

2012002325

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

Dedicated to all our Architects, especially

Jack Vance

Gene Wolfe

Jack McDevitt

Allen Steele

and

Connie Willis

NEO “Keanu” Interior

Heaven's War _2.jpg

Dramatis Personae

Present on Keanu

ZACK STEWART, astronomer and astronaut, former commander of Destiny-7

CAMILLA MUNARETTO, 9, Revenant

YVONNE HALL, astronaut Revenant

COWBOY, dog, formerly the property of Shane Weldon

DASH, Sentry

Houston Group

RACHEL STEWART, 14, Zack’s daughter

SHANE WELDON, Destiny-7 mission director

HARLEY DRAKE, former astronaut

SASHA BLAINE, astronomer

GABRIEL JONES, former director of the NASA Johnson Space Center

BRENT BYNUM, White House deputy

XAVIER TOUTANT, Katrina refugee, drug dealer

Bangalore Group

VIKRAM NAYAR, Brahma mission director

ZHAO BUOMING, Chinese intelligence agent

PAVAK RADHAKRISHNAN, 16, son of Brahma commander Taj

MAKALI PILLAY, exobiologist

VALENTINA MAKAROVA, exolinguist

DALE SCOTT, disgraced former astronaut

CHITRAN RANHOTRA, refugee and mother

JAIDEV MAHABALA, enterprising engineer

DAKSHA SAIKUMAR, engineer

Table of Contents

Part One

The Prisoner

Zack

Rachel

Part Two

Arrival Day: Valya

Arrival Day: Xavier

Arrival Day: Harley

Arrival Day: Gabriel

Arrival Day: Rachel

Arrival Day: Jaidev

Arrival Day: Harley

Arrival Day: Zack

Arrival Day: Zhao

Arrival Day: Zack

Arrival Day: Harley

Arrival Day: Dale

Arrival Day: Valya

Arrival Day: Makali

Arrival Day: Zack

Arrival Day: Pav

Arrival Day: Harley

Part Three

The Prisoner

Zack

Rachel

Xavier

Part Four

The Prisoner

Dale

Zhao

Pav

Valya

Harley

Rachel

Makali

Gabriel

Part Five

The Prisoner

Zhao

Dale

Harley

Zack

Rachel

Valya

Xavier

Pav

Jaidev

Gabriel

Makali

Zhao

Zack

Harley

Dale

Rachel

Xavier

Part Six

The Prisoner

Valya

Pav

Gabriel

Dale

Zhao

Part Seven

The Prisoner

Makali

Harley

Zack

Epilogue

Rachel

Acknowledgments

Heaven’s Fall

NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

MISSION CONTROL STATUS REPORT

AUGUST 29, 2019

DESTINY-7 LANDING

NASA’s Destiny-7 multipurpose crew vehicle successfully splashed down today in the Pacific Ocean near San Clemente Island, California, at 9:45 A.M. PDT.

The combined crew of acting mission commander Tea Nowinski and Brahma spacecraft crew members Taj Radhakrishnan, Natalia Yorkina, and Lucas Munaretto were taken aboard the recovery vessel Liberty within an hour and are undergoing physical examinations at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Nowinski is expected to return to Houston this evening.

The landing ended a ten-day mission filled with anomalies, including unplanned events aboard the Near-Earth Object Keanu that resulted in the deaths of Destiny-7 astronauts Patrick Downey and Yvonne Hall as well as Brahma cosmonaut Dennis Chertok and the apparent loss of mission commander Zack Stewart. The Coalition spacecraft Brahma was also destroyed, resulting in a combined return crew.


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