Cronus Eclipsed

By Brian F.H. Clement

Ren has lived more than a century, witnessing the Final Transmission, the Strife Years that followed, the new world ushered in after Assimilation Protocol was initiated by Hul-net, and then the world reconfiguration of At-net. Now, she is tasked with a mission to uncover the reasons behind a mysterious emergency signal sent from an archaeological research base under the ice of Enceladus, in orbit of Saturn. She must assemble a team of specialists, including a sentient fungus, a curmudgeonly mollusc more at home deep beneath the Atlantic ocean, a reptilian rehabilitated assassin, a recovering "Psychomath," who lived only for the perfection of every new calculation, a highly intelligent corvid whose brain has been rewired with advanced neural technology, and a hive of cybernetic insects that functions as a collective unit within a mechanical enclosure. Outwitting pirates, cults, and an ideologically fanatical AI on the way, they must traverse the solar system, overcome their own minds to evolve beyond themselves, and make contact with a new form of intelligence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian F.H. Clement
• Release date: Mar 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781777005320

Brian F.H. Clement

Brian F.H. Clement was born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada and comes from a multicultural family with both Japanese and English heritage. He lived in Japan for a year after high school and returned to Canada in 1997. He then took up independent film, writing and directing 7 features in Victoria, BC, which were distributed by small labels around the world during the DVD boom of the early 2000s, and received screenings at film fests from Germany to Brazil, Australia to Argentina, as well as all over North America. One of these films, Dark Paradox, serves as inspiration and background for his first novel, The Final Transmission, published in 2013 by Damnation Books. The sequel, Assimilation Protocol, followed shortly after.Brian is the recipient of several film-related awards and currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he works in film and television distribution, and continues to write and direct when time allows.

Book preview

CRONUS ECLIPSED

Brian F.H. Clement

Ghost Cats Publishing

brianclement.com

Cronus Eclipsed

By Brian F.H. Clement

1st edition

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-7770053-2-0

Cover art by: Brian F.H. Clement

Edited by: Sephera Giron

Copyright 2020 Brian F.H. Clement

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form, including digital and electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Thanks to all my friends and family who encouraged me to look beyond the horizon.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

One

Ren sat naked on her towel and looked at the grey-pink underside of the clouds above. The beach was as busy as she had come to expect on a midweek evening past sundown. As much as she had once enjoyed the sun during summer days, she tried to avoid it now that her body had changed. It had now been over seventy years since she became Ren. Most people only looked forward to their bodies breaking down over time, but she was different. Even mutants would age and die like any normal human. Ren, on the other hand, had been reborn during the Mutation Plague as a fusion of her old self and something like a salamander, with her memories absent. With her regenerative abilities that allowed to her heal rapidly and even re-grow severed limbs, she had avoided the scourge of old age. It was something she hadn’t noticed until several decades into her new life. Her extended lifespan was an unintended and unexpected benefit of being enhanced by outside forces.

Her old name as a human had been Karen Wendleton, but the Ordex technicians who had worked on her had renamed and numbered her Ren One-Ten. She had been used as an assassin, until she broke her programming with the help of free mutants, during the Strife Years that followed the Plague. Years later, she was a part of the events that led to the downfall of Ordex and the ushering in of revolutionary change. Mutants, generations removed from their human parentage, adopted the term Nuevans, based on another language’s slang term for new people. She had spent so much time working to gather the talent to do the building of the newly reconfigured world, that she had forgotten how to relax. Lying on the beach as she had done in her human youth was an attempt to recapture something she knew she had lost and had forgotten how to remember.

Like most of the denizens of the beach at night, she preferred the warm, humid summer evening, to the blisteringly hot day. She needed to avoid any chance of dehydration since it was built into her genes. Like a true salamander, she required regular hydration. Unlike a true salamander, she was once tethered to Ordex by her need for moisture and kept under their control for too many years. Even after her friend Semmy had removed the Ordex telemplant node used to track her thoughts and movement, her exaggerated need for hydration remained as a painful reminder of her past. Ren stood, walked to the lake, and stepped in. She parted the water and slid through it as the cool liquid enveloped her body. Her black and orange mottled skin made her almost invisible in the shadows.

The night was comforting. Ren was used to the darkness; she spent so much time in sewers, underground tunnels, underwater, and even in space, that she felt at home. There were lights on the beach for the benefit of those with less acute vision, but Ren had eyes well adapted for the night, as did many of the other Nuevans on the beach. Others had cybernetically enhanced vision. It wasn’t the beach she had come to while she was a young human, but it was still just as relaxing. Few others around her wore clothing. In the reconfigured world populated by such a wide variety of Nuevans and altered humans, most insecurities over body image had evaporated. The only thing that she couldn’t get used to was the silence from the other beachgoers. She remembered beach visits as a child with her parents when she was Karen, and they were always full of laughter and the voices of those around her. Now, the sound from them was nearly nonexistent. Since everyone else there had organic telemplants, they communicated silently, directly mind-to-mind. After the procedure to have hers removed, she was no longer able to have cybernetic devices implanted that might allow her access to At-Net, the information grid that had replaced Hul-Net before it. Her isolation from others was a disadvantage in that she was unable to access the information they could as easily; it was an advantage because she became uniquely qualified for work in which she needed to be autonomous.

New work would be coming soon, and that was part of the reason she had come to the beach. Ren emerged from the water and walked back to her towel. She was surrounded by people, yet apart from them. Soon she wouldn’t have a choice as to where she might end up, and she might be alone for weeks or months at a time. Just alone with my thoughts. No one else’s. She looked around at everyone else on the beach. The sound of the lake as it lapped at the shore was broken by a small group nearby as several people sang Happy Birthday out loud. It was one of the few things anyone did together with their voices in a casual manner, outside of live music performances. She turned back to the sky as the underside of the clouds reflected back the light of the city nearby. Not as dark as the ocean, that’s for sure. Or space. Not even close to as quiet, either.

Ren’s internal musings were interrupted by another sound, something that was momentarily jarring, even though she knew it was coming. Heads all over the beach turned to the sound of the swish of the water in front of her. From out of the lake emerged a huge organic pod that looked like an enormous, headless turtle. The pod beached itself on the shore, and the front end split and opened. A pair of humanoid shapes stepped out. Ren cast them a quick glance, but she knew what they looked like already.

Goddamnit, she said and stood up. As the pair approached her, Ren turned and ran across the sand. Particles kicked up across other beachgoers, which prompted yelps and shouts that broke the quiet.

Wait! a voice shouted behind her. Ren increased her pace and leaped across a row of bushes. Between the beach and the Toronto Island park was a wooded area, somewhere she knew she might be able to lose her pursuers.

Don’t have me yet. Ren ducked under a knotted tree branch and turned to listen for the sound of anyone creeping through the bushes. Nocturnal animals were all around her, and the sounds they made stood out to her like loud conversations. The animal noises quieted and then stopped. For a moment Ren heard nothing until the rustle of leaves and the cracking of branches betrayed the presence of someone else. Ren sighed in frustration and moved away.

We just need you for the mission! This was scheduled!

Ren shouted over her shoulder. Get lost! I’m on vacation!

But Director! the voice said. Ren ignored it and raced from the bushes. She ran in an arcing pattern and circled back to the beach. She scampered across the sand to her towel and lay down with an annoyed sigh. Her pursuers ran up and stood before her. Their faces were masked, and they both looked like featureless green mannequins. Each was completely covered in the green layer of a Symbsuit; a symbiotic, genetically-engineered, living garment based on algae. They reached to their heads, and the coverings over their faces parted to reveal their features. One of them was covered in a velvety black fur, while the other had downy white feathers. The sight wasn’t entirely out of the norm, and everyone else on the beach went back to ignoring the visitors. Ren lay back and put her arm over her eyes.

We’re here for your retrieval, Director, the furred one said. Could you please not run away?

Ren groaned. Don’t call me Director. I haven’t worked at Anchorpoint officially for a decade.

Sorry, force of habit. Your image is all over the habitat. You’re something of a lege- the furred one stopped mid-sentence. Ren knew he wanted to say legend, but he probably also knew she hated being called that. …well-known figure, excuse me.

Ren moved her arm to look at the two and sighed. Who sent you?

The feathered one frowned. The Third Director. Surely you knew we were on our way?

Third Director from Anchorpoint? That’s odd. I did. Ren sat up. I’m just being difficult. She stood up and brushed sand off her body, then reached into her bag for a round green ball the same color as the coverings worn by the two in front of her. She pressed it to her chest, and the ball flattened and spread across her trunk. Within seconds, it crept over her entire body until she was clad in a Symbsuit identical to the ones worn by the two in front of her. She held up the towel and shook the sand from it, then folded it to put in her bag. You two have names?

The furred one spoke first. I’m Teb. This is Kesra, he said as he gestured to his companion.

We’re going to the flotilla first, before heading to an off-shore destination, which is why we came in this, Kesra said and pointed back at the pod.

Ren slung her bag over her shoulder. So much for my vacation, she said and gestured for the two to lead her to the pod.

****

Ren lay and watched the two pod operators as they interfaced with the inside of the organic, partially-living vehicle they rode in. They wore suits that featured extended portions from their heads that linked to the pod’s inner surface. To a newcomer, the sight might seem grotesque, but Ren was used to it. She wasn’t upset about the retrieval, because she knew it was inevitable, but her lack of downtime until the last year had made her reluctant to return to work. And all I have is my beach bag. Not that I need anything until the mission begins. At-Net Infralog (short for Infrastructure and Logistics) provided everything she needed: her housing unit, clothing, equipment, food, and everything required to keep her unique biology functioning. She was so valued as a technician and organizer with special skills that her income was effectively unlimited, and At-Net treated her as such. She knew that whatever was coming, she’d be well supplied.

Any information on the job? Her question was met with silence from Kesra and Teb. Just curious if you can give me an idea of what to expect.

Kesra turned back to look at her. Third Director will have more details for you when you arrive.

Ren nodded. Unusual, but not unheard of. If it were a particularly sensitive assignment, with implications beyond Earth, or one that might concern rival factions, cults, or violent extremists, information would be forthcoming. Kesra and Teb would certainly know nothing about what Ren would be asked to do. Any chance of information leakage was too great. While the number of cults and dangerous factions was now much lower than it had been during the Strife Years, or the Reconfiguration Period following At-Net’s creation, hazards still existed. Many had consolidated into larger and more powerful organizations that were violently opposed to Ren’s employers. The group formerly known as Ecotopians was what Ren worked with and was now being enlisted by. They had come to be referred to colloquially as Mariners due to their lake flotilla, and later thanks to the construction of bases along the Pacific coast, and Anchorpoint in the Atlantic Ocean. They were one of the most, if not the most active organizations in Reconfiguration, due to having already built their own parallel infrastructure while Ordex was still in power. Ren didn’t hazard to speculate who they were trying to avoid information leaks to, but she had a good idea. No more Ninth Darkness, no more Communants, just the weird hybrid of the two. If we’re trying to keep them out of this, it’s got to be big.

Ren felt the motion of the pod dissipate. Instinctively, she looked around, even though there were no portholes or windows, and she had no way to see where they were. Even if this thing were transparent, we wouldn’t see much underwater anyway. The vehicle shuddered and stopped. The front flaps opened, and Teb and Kesra crawled out. Ren followed. The lake flotilla was as she remembered it with some more wear and algae growing along the edges. She hadn’t visited in over ten years. Before Reconfiguration was fully in effect, she had spent considerable time using the Ecotopian artifacts here that allowed her to interface with her own memories. She was now fully cognizant of her old life as Karen Wendleton, with memories intact. It was still difficult to think of herself as having been Karen, rather than a separate person. During Reconfiguration, her time was spent on the construction of two underwater habitats, then on scouting forays to various Nuevan communities for new talent, and the occasional trip into space.

Even after dark, the flotilla still buzzed with activity. Dim pink lights illuminated other pods as they came and went, and flotilla denizens who walked about. Ren and the two she was with were acknowledged by no one. Teb and Kesra walked toward one of the inner domes.

Taking air transport from here? Ren asked.

Teb and Kesra stopped in their tracks. Kesra turned. Just need to recharge the pod. We’ll be leaving via the Saint Lawrence seaway in nine hours. You should get some rest.

Ren nodded and walked away from the two, but Teb turned to her. You need to follow us. You’re not staying in communal quarters tonight with the other aquatics. You’ll have a private room.

Ren frowned but followed them. Even more unusual than just not telling me what’s going on or our end destination. No one ever gets a separate room. She preferred being immersed in water while she slept, but there was an entire domed area in which others like her could bed. Ren followed the pair across a bridge that connected two of the domes. Kesra touched the surface of the dome and it split open to allow them through, then resealed behind them as they entered. They led Ren to another bridge and onto a smaller dome, slightly larger than the pod they had arrived in. Teb gestured with his arm for Ren to enter the smaller enclosure. She stepped forward and touched the surface, and then moved inside. The dome was barely high enough for her to stand. Could touch the roof if I jumped. What the hell is going on? This is like an isolation chamber.

Ren turned to ask Teb and Kesra what was happening, but they had already walked away. There was no movement around her small dome, and no one to answer any questions. She dropped her beach bag to the ground and looked around the interior of the enclosure. There was no organic computer, no neural interface, and no features of any kind that she could see. The only sound was that of the lake water splashing against the side of the clear membrane. Maybe I’ll stay up for a while just in case…

Before Ren could complete her thought, she sensed a change in the interior humidity. A smell entered her nostrils, pungent and biting. What is that? What the hell? She was lightheaded, and she sat down on the floor of the dome. Her eyelids were heavy, and her head nodded forward. She was suddenly immensely tired, and the space grew darker. A deep, phlegmy voice echoed, close to her head, but it sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel. Sorry to do this to you, Director. She felt only a soft impact as her shoulder hit the floor and her world went dark.

Two

Ren realized she was kicking her legs, and she was immersed in a black fog. She looked down at her feet and discovered she was pedaling a bicycle. The fog parted, and she saw that she was on a smooth, asphalt road. The lines on the road were newly painted, and her tires picked up the paint and spread it along behind her in white tire tracks. Ren laughed, and looked up at the lights of the city at night. The summer air was heavy and humid, and sweat ran down her tattooed arms. She smiled with the joy of riding quickly through the night, and the breeze she felt on her damp skin. Two people talking on the side of the road caught her attention, and she turned her head to look at them. A tall, dark-skinned man in a leather jacket, chatting with a younger, paler man in coveralls. Benoit and Thomas? Her front wheel hit the curb, and she went over the handlebars.

Ren opened her eyes and lifted her head. She looked around and saw that she was still in the domed enclosure, but the rest of the flotilla was either gone or obscured behind darkness. Her head ached but as she raised herself, she saw that she was partially immersed in water. The floor of the dome had a layer of liquid that she was lying in. At least I’ve been taken care of. But did we move? Where’s the flotilla? Ren looked up and saw only wisps of vapor trailing by outside the transparent structure.

The enclosure suddenly dropped, and Ren was thrown up in the air, as was her bag and all the water on the floor. For a split second, everything was suspended in mid-air, until the dome righted itself and Ren was pushed back down.

What the hell? Ren said aloud. She rose onto her knees and pressed her face against the side of the dome to look out. As the clouds parted outside the clear membrane, she was able to see tiny lights in the distance. For a moment, without a frame of reference, she was reminded of things she had seen deep underwater, in space, and in the air. Memories too of an experience she had long ago aboard the Ecotopian flotilla when she interfaced with a strange, ancient artifact. As the dome bobbed again, she became certain of where she was. They’ve got me flying somewhere over the east coast. What is going on?

The phlegmy voice spoke up again, the sound coming from an unseen audio speaker. Once more, apologies. It was necessary. It sounded like someone speaking through a mouth and throat full of mushy gelatin. She recognized the voice.

Gelersh? An explanation would be nice. Third Director Gelersh was a fellow Nuevan she had worked with on many occasions. His biology was similar to that of a mollusk’s.

The two couriers weren’t told where you were going. Can’t even tell you now. Likely a Quation operative infiltrated the lake flotilla. Operatives were on you at the beach, and good chance they were on Teb and Kesra as well. Quation? Great, the math-freaks. Quation was a cult-like group that had once been known as the Ninth Darkness Communant Alliance, or NDCA until they came to be known as The Equation, and then shortened to Quation. They had built a religion called Mathology, obsessed with order, and the mathematical structure of the universe.

Why? How can they know what I’m doing if I don’t?

Can’t tell you yet. Has to wait ‘til you’re here.

Ren grunted. She knew better than to continue the circular line of questioning. All right, was all she said. This is more subterfuge than normal even for the Mariners when Quation is involved. Bunch of damned weirdos. Better be worth my time. Not too happy about you drugging me, by the way.

You’ll forgive me.

Ren sighed and sat on the floor. She picked up her beach bag, which was soaked with water, and dropped it in annoyance. Ren noticed the dome descend, and the subsequent change in her perception of her own heaviness. There was no discernible change in pressure, something she had become used to from years of working with the Ecotopians’ advanced biotechnology. During the Strife Years, they had developed a cooperative biotechnology that worked with the sentient hive-mind of microscopic zooid colonies. Rather than being destructively warped by ideology, as the zooids employed by the Ninth Darkness cult had been, the Ecotopian zooid biotech was a mutual agreement to the benefit of both zooids and users. She knew that microscopic organisms had already surrounded and entered her body and adapted her at a cellular level to the rapid changes in air pressure, and would continue to do so. Likewise, the vehicle was so carefully controlled while flying at low altitudes that they hadn’t bothered to strap her in. Probably didn’t want me waking up in restraints either. Gelersh knows I wouldn’t be happy about that.

The enclosure passed through a layer of cloud, and Ren saw that she had passed beyond the range of ground-based lights. She looked back and saw a string of lights illuminating a rolling line in the distance. The distinctive outline of offshore facilities for algae and kelp farming was unmistakable. Beneath the dome, frothing grey darkness grew larger and larger. Ren knew where she was and what her destination would be. The dome moved without slowing its descent and hit the dark grey waves with a crash that barely shook the enclosure. Ren had been swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. White foam surrounded her view. It quickly dispersed and left only a few stray bubbles which floated back up. Again, Ren felt no pressure change as she descended, and her eyes easily adapted to the ever-darkening depths. Beneath her, she knew that dozens of pipes and lines ran from the shoreline farms and tidal power stations toward an underwater habitat.

Almost there, Gelersh’s voice said.

Thanks, I know. I did work at Anchorpoint for a decade. I helped build the place.

That’s why we all still call you Director, Director.

It got comfortable. It felt peaceful. The quiet was… serene.

Still is.

After racing around the world and living life so hectically for so long, it was a welcome change. The work kept me busy, building the teams to create and staff the habitats, and the simplicity of my existence down here was pleasant.

Ren nearly cracked a smile, but her attention was drawn down as a pink glow became evident. She had seen it dozens of times, but the dim light of Anchorpoint as it slowly came into view was a sublime beauty she always enjoyed. Out of the deep, the blur of light gradually came into focus, and the underwater city became visible. Ren felt a swell of pride at the accomplishment of which she had been a part. The city had expanded since she had visited it last. New modules had grown out of the old ones, and the overall structure had become less homogeneous than she remembered. Even though it was built and manufactured, it had an organic feel to it due to the biomaterials used in construction. Cubes were attached to dodecahedrons, which split off from spherical enclosures. Ren saw the original inner structure, which was made up of sixteen cubes encircling an enormous central ring that looked like a huge light-blue doughnut. The ring was built on the surface, transported to the location for Anchorpoint, and then deliberately sunk. The third habitat module, which she designed and staffed, was