DEDICATION

To all my extended family.

ULTIMA

STEPHEN BAXTER

GOLLANCZ

LONDON

CONTENTS

Cover

Dedication

Title Page

Epigraph One

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Part Two

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Epigraph Two

Part Three

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Part Four

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Epigraph Three

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Chapter Seventy

Chapter Seventy-One

Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Three

Chapter Seventy-Four

Part Five

Chapter Seventy-Five

Epigraph Four

Afterword

Also by Stephen Baxter

Copyright

EPIGRAPH 1

In the heart of a hundred billion worlds –

Across a trillion dying realities in a lethal multiverse –

In the chthonic silence –

There was satisfaction. The network of mind continued to push out in space, from the older stars, the burned-out worlds, to the young, out across the Galaxy. Pushed deep in time too, twisting the fate of countless trillions of lives.

But time was short, and ever shorter.

In the Dream of the End Time, there was a note of urgency.

ONE

CHAPTER 1

AD 2227; AUC (AB URBE CONDITA, AFTER THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY) 2980

‘Danger, Yuri Eden! Danger!’

‘ColU? What’s the emergency? Another Prox flare? We need to get to the shelter.’

‘Be calm, Yuri Eden. You are no longer on Per Ardua.’

‘Beth. Beth and Mardina. Where—’

‘Your daughter and her mother are far from here.’

‘Far? … Are they safe?’

‘That I cannot tell you, Yuri Eden. We must carry on in the presumption that they are.’

‘So why did you yell “danger” in my ear?’

‘It was the only way to wake you, Yuri Eden. The drugs the medicus has been prescribing for you are rather random in their effects, although they are satisfactorily strong.’

‘So you lied, right? Since when was an autonomous colonisation unit programmed to lie?’

‘I fear I have exceeded the parameters of my initial programming rather extensively by now, Yuri Eden.’

‘You know, I feel like I’m blundering down a dark corridor. And I open one door after another, trying to make sense of it all. But I’m safe when I’m asleep …’

‘Take your time, Yuri Eden.’

‘Medicus. That word … I’m still on that damn Roman tub, aren’t I?’

‘We are still guests aboard the Malleus Jesu, yes.’

‘And – ow!’

‘The medicus would advise you not to try to sit up, Yuri Eden.’

‘When I sleep, I forget. The crap growing inside me. I forget it all.’

‘It’s still here. But so am I, my friend. So am I. Here with you.’

‘Well, I can see that. So why the hell did you wake me?’

‘You asked me to. Well, to be precise, you asked me to witness and record your last will and testament. I can do that for you. But you have been asleep many hours, Yuri Eden. I thought it best to wake you before—’

‘Before the time comes when I never wake up at all, right?’

‘It was Stef Kalinski’s suggestion.’

‘Ha! It would be. How is she, by the way?’

‘The last time I communicated with her she was drinking hardened legionaries under the table. Anything to get the taste of the Romans’ disgusting fish sauce out from between her teeth. That is close to a direct quotation.’

‘She’ll outlive us all. Her and her impossible twin, probably.’

‘I hope to learn that some day. Yuri Eden, we must press on—’

‘Before I pass out again. It’s OK, old pal. So. My last will and testament. What kind of legal form can we use that will be recognisable in the Roman system? Whatever the hell that is, two thousand years after the Empire was supposed to have fallen. It’s not as if I have much to leave to anybody anyhow. Only the stuff we walked through that final Hatch with.’

‘Including myself.’

‘Including yourself, buddy. It’s strange to think of you as property but I guess that’s how it is.’

‘I am only an AI, Yuri Eden. And in this – different reality – human beings are property, some of them. Some even on this interstellar vessel. So I am less of an exception than you would imagine here. We cannot change such things.’

‘Maybe not. But my instructions are clear enough. If Stef survives me, my share of you, in the Romans’ eyes, is to go to her. If she doesn’t survive me you go to Beth, on Earth, if by some miracle you can find her.’

‘Quintus Fabius has promised me he will make sure of it, Yuri Eden, with the support of the legion’s collegia.’

‘So, let’s begin. I was born in 2067, old style. Getting on for a hundred and sixty years ago, then. Even though I have only lived—’

‘Sixty-two years, Yuri. The name your parents gave you—’

‘Is irrelevant. I was born in North Britain. My parents were both members of the Heroic Generation, who struggled to save the world from the climate Jolts of the previous decades. Well, they succeeded. And before the prosecutors caught up with them, they had me cryo-frozen at age nineteen. Just as well they never saw me revived on Mars, a century later.’

‘Your name, though …’

‘Some joker called me “Yuri” when they hauled me out of the cryo tank.’

‘Very well. And after a year on Mars—’

‘I was caught up in an ISF sweep, with a little help from the Peacekeepers at Eden. Who were sorry to see me go.’

‘You are being sarcastic.’

‘Yeah, flag it. Found myself waking up again, aboard the ISF ship Ad Astra. A kernel-driven interstellar hulk full of press-ganged losers like me. I made myself popular once more …