2640
First Empire collapses.
2800
Interstellar trade collapses in Trans-Coal Sack sector.
2820
In absence of Imperial contact, Loyalist New Scotland continues prosecution of war against “Rebel” New Ireland. Coherent light from the Mote reaches New Caledonia.
2862
“Motie” civilization on Mote Prime launches a solar sail-guided probe into human space, using a laser cannon. Coherent light from the Mote reaches New Caledonia.
2867
City churches, Maxroy’s Purchase destroyed. Temple of the True Church proclaimed Governing Church of Maxroy’s Purchase. Swenson’s Ape paper authored.
2868
Alderson tramlines collapse between Purchase system and New Utah.
2870
Secession Wars end. New Ireland defeated.
2882
Howard Grote Littlemead founds Church of Him on New Scotland.
2902
Coherent light from Mote ends abruptly. Howard Grote Littlemead “hastened to meet his God.” Under intense persecution, many Himmists flee to New Ireland.
2903
Leaonidas IV of Sparta proclaims the Second Empire of Man.
2908
His Mission dispatched from New Ireland to Maxroy’s Purchase. Expands rapidly among “false” Church remnants.
2963
Hannefin Mines registered, Pitchfork City, Maxroy’s Purchase. True Church begins secret, periodic shipments of selenium supplements and fertilizer to New Utah, in exchange for opal meerschaum.
2964
His Mission to Heaven dispatched from Maxroy’s Purchase to New Utah.
2967
Imperial contact with New Caledonia re-established. INSS Terrible bombards Derry, ending New Ireland secession. New Scotland designated sector capital.
2984
General Metals registered, Pitchfork City, Maxroy’s Purchase.
2986
New Ireland designated sector Naval shore leave destination.
3005
Union Planetoids registered, Maxroy’s Purchase.
3007
Maxroy’s Purchase joins Empire of Man.
3013
Prince Samual’s World discovered by units of Imperial Navy. Events of
King David’s Spaceship
begin.
3016
New Chicago Revolt. Events of
The Mote in God’s Eye
begin.
3017
First contact: Motie light sail reaches human space. MacArthur dispatched to investigate Mote System. Mote Blockade Treaty concluded with representatives from Mote Prime, preventing Motie exit from Mote Space.
3026
Tanner Metals registered, Pitchfork City, Maxroy’s Purchase.
3035
Sir Lawrence Jackson, Governor, Maxroy’s Purchase, dispatches Bury-owned ship to New Utah to invite Empire membership. The New Utah True Church refuses.
3047
Events of The Gripping Hand
begin. The “Motie scare” on Maxroy’s Purchase. Renner investigation reveals True Church use of a periodic tramline from Maxroy’s Purchase to New Utah. Collapse of The Curdle opens a second Alderson point from the Mote system into Imperial space.
3048
Motie Medina Trader Alliance concludes and polices the Second Mote Blockade Treaty in exchange for exclusive trading rights with the Empire. Motie access to Empire Space prohibited without infection with contraceptive C-L parasite.
Horace Bury bequeaths bulk of Imperial Autonetics voting stock to a combination of his own and Alliance families.
3049
Second Jackson Expedition to New Utah planned. Events of
Outies
begin.
Prologue
Nauvoo Vision, en route to Saint George, New Utah, 3035
Ship’s time, it was well past midnight. Reuben Fox padded silently through the empty corridor. The Delegation all slept like exhausted children, thanks to a generous dollop of melatonin in their evening nightcaps. “It’s a Mormon Tea,” he’d said, passing around the steaming cups, “No caffeine. Help you sleep like babies before we descend tomorrow.”
And indeed they did. He stopped before a door just outside the cargo bay, marked only by a small plate that read “Maintenance Access.” He tapped softly. Barely a tap, even. More like stroking the door with his fingertips. It opened, silently. “Twenty minutes to Fling,” he murmured. Asach Quinn nodded, stepped into the corridor, satchel in one hand, a sealed hard case in the other. Fox pulled the door shut noiselessly, and led the way.
Inside the cargo bay, they skirted two enormous, white, blunt-nosed cylinders cradled in Fling racks. Each bore a square red cross, half-encircled by a bright red crescent. They stopped at a double-walled safety lock beside the bay door. Quinn knelt on the floor, and unlocked the case. Three objects were lodged in form-fitting impact foam inside. The first was cylindrical, the size of a man’s fist, with several fittings around a collar at one end. The second was a spider of tubing, laced through a solid tubular framework with quick-connectors at either end and couplings at the ends of each hose. Third, there was a sphere, small enough to be enclosed by a woman’s hands cupped fingertip-to-fingertip, made of a tough, flexible composite compound.
Asach locked one end of the frame to the cylinder, then dogged a set of couplings to the collar fittings. Next, from the satchel came a tough, turgid, multi-celled, doughnut-shaped bladder, with more fittings ringing one base. Asach slipped it over the hose assembly, fitting side away from the cylinder, dogged down the other end of the hose couplings, and snapped the sphere to the top end of the frame. The whole thing—sphere, upon toroid surrounding the frame assembly, upon cylinder—was little longer than the distance from Asach’s elbow to wrist, and light enough to lift easily with one hand.
Fox tapped a code sequence, then pressed his thumb into the pad beside the safety lock. The door slid open. Coils of retractable lifeline were stowed neatly at four anchor points on the inner walls; it was otherwise empty. Asach slid the assembled contraption inside. It fit, just. Fox closed the door with another key sequence. It was still air-filled; still pressurized. It would not be for much longer.
A disembodied voice echoed in the quiet. “Commander Fox?”
“Present.”
“Cargo Bay cycle commencing, 60 seconds. Clear, or abort?”
“Clearing.”
“Aye-aye, sir. Clear to commence in fifty-nine. Fifty-eight. Fifty-seven…”
It took only a few moments to traverse the bay, exit the hold, and seal the door. Fox remained at the view panel. The faint hum as air was sucked from the bay and recompressed somewhere in the bowels of the ship was audible for a few moments, then faded as the hold neared vacuum. The fling racks began sliding along their rails. The bay doors opened to space. A few stars glittered. Most were obscured by the Coal Sack.