Rachel was in her early twenties when the HBs, then numbering more than three hundred and living in two habitats, were able to fire Keanu’s engines again, braking the trajectory (which took five years) and firing the vessel back toward Earth.

With limited fuel, however, Keanu was never able to reach the same velocity…the flight “home” took three times as long as the flight out. Until recently, there had been no communication with Earth. It had taken years of experimentation with Keanu’s systems to develop such a system—and more years until the vessel was within range.

Then there had been a long series of debates—what do we know about Earth? If the Reivers reached it, the entire planet might be infected, enemy territory.

So we wait, Rachel thought. Until today.

Pav Radhakrishnan, her longtime lover and confidant, approached, edging in front of the Sentry. “Madame Mayor,” Pav said, relishing the term because he knew it irritated Rachel, “what are your orders? Do we answer Earth, do we stay silent and fly on by, or—?”

She rose. As she did, she happened to glance back across the habitat to the original Temple, now surrounded by Keanu-grown apartments and fabrication facilities. There were fields, roads, passages that connected to other habitats. The HB population now stood at close to one thousand.

So different from those first days.

Rachel turned to face Pav, and DSA, connate of DSZ, her best friend among the Sentries and her functioning first mate. “We’re not going to fly on by,” she said.

“I know,” Pav said. “But you always like to hear all the options.”

“And we can’t remain silent much longer,” DSA said through its translator. “There is no evidence that we’ve been tracked, but we are detectable by telescopes that existed a human century ago.”

It was not going to be easy. In fact, if the Reivers had indeed reached Earth, Rachel and Pav and all the HBs were facing a continuation of the ugly little war her father had fought and won twenty-one years ago.

What would Zack Stewart say? Or Megan?

“Let’s go get ’em.”

BLIND TRANSMISSION RECEIVED ABOARD KEANU:

Greetings!

Colin Edgely here…discoverer of Keanu back in 2016, transmitting from an undisclosed location.

It’s twenty-one years to the day since the Venture and Brahma crews landed on Keanu, twenty-one years to the week that 187 humans were taken there by means unknown. Some of us have watched you fly away from Earth and the solar system.

Some fewer have watched you fly back.

We hope you can read this or understand it:

DON’T

[Message corrupted.]

Acknowledgments

An SF trilogy, especially an epic SF trilogy of which Heaven’s War is the middle chapter, takes time. We’ve been working on this since January 2007 and have a bit of road ahead of us.

So, first, thanks are due our wives, Marina Black and Cindy Cassutt, and the children, Milo, Sayle, Ryan, and Alexandra.

At Ace Books, Ginjer Buchanan, Kat Sherbo, and Rosanne Romanello. At Pan Macmillan, Julie Crisp and Bella Pagan.

Simon Lipskar at Writers House.

A special shout-out to those who supported Heaven’s Shadow: Rick Kleffel, Lou Anders, and Paul Cornell.

And double thanks to those who are continuing on Keanu’s journey.

D.S.G. & M.C.

Los Angeles, December 2011

Don’t miss the next book by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt

HEAVEN’S FALL

Available in July 2013 from Ace Books!