Final Days
Gary Gibson
Language: English
Pages: 384
ISBN: 0330519697
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The first installment in a riveting new SF series from the author of the Shoal Sequence
It's 2235 and through the advent of wormhole technology more than a dozen interstellar colonies have been linked to Earth; but this new mode of transportation comes at a price and there are risks. Saul Dumont knows this better than anyone. He's still trying to cope with the loss of the wormhole link to the Galileo system, which has stranded him on Earth far from his wife and child for the past several years. Only weeks away from the link with Galileo finally being re-established, he stumbles across a conspiracy to suppress the discovery of a second, alien network of wormholes which lead billions of years into the future. A covert expedition is sent to what is named Site 17 to investigate, but when an accident occurs and one of the expedition, Mitchell Stone, disappears, they realize that they are dealing with something far beyond their understanding. When a second expedition travels via the wormholes to Earth in the near future of 2245 they discover a devastated, lifeless solar system—all except for one man, Mitchell Stone, recovered from an experimental cryogenics facility in the ruins of a lunar city. Stone may be the only surviving witness to the coming destruction of the Earth. But why is he the only survivor—and once he's brought back to the present, is there any way he and Saul can prevent the destruction that’s coming?
possibility. We have to think for the rest of the human race.’ ‘Not all of our people have made a landing yet,’ Lester insisted, suddenly looking all of his years. ‘We already lost Ginny. What if the rest of them couldn’t get through in time?’ ‘I’ve seen what’s happening back home – just like you have,’ she said, her voice gentle now. ‘Way I see it, we have a moral obligation to do everything we can to help Saul. I just wish we had a name for the thing causing all of this. Otherwise everything
here and there, his lips twitching. Saul used his contacts to watch the lunar surface slip by beneath them. Before long it became clear that they were dropping lower and lower, the craft oriented so it was flying upside-down in respect to the surface. More time passed until the nearest edge of Copernicus itself crept into sight, growing wider and deeper as they descended towards the low hills beyond the crater’s rim. ‘Tight,’ muttered Amy. ‘Look at that. Not much flat ground round here. Shoulda
desk automatically came to life, with sets of icons floating above its surface. He followed the overlay’s instructions, reaching out to one icon in particular and once again entering Hanover’s code. Hearing a click from somewhere next to his knee, Saul pushed the chair back to find one of the desk drawers had slid open. He dipped a hand inside and withdrew a single unmarked keycard. He stared at it dry-mouthed. It looked so innocuous for something that could change the fate of the human race.
together, but his bonds simply grew tighter the more he struggled. So, in the end, he gave up. Clumsily staggering upright, he then slid along the wall until he reached a corner of his makeshift cell. He could feel a faint breeze there, which surely meant an open window. He next slid along the second wall, until he encountered the edge of the windowsill with his fingertips. Cool air ruffled his hair and made him wonder how high up above the ground he was. Saul continued on his way, shuffling
and slumped back against cool steel, closing his eyes as it whisked him twenty floors up to the Florida ASI’s command centre. The air was full of a distant rumble, like static; the massed voices of however many millions of refugees that had by now arrived at the perimeter. He thought of the crowds he’d already passed through, and wondered with a chill how many of them had since died. Stepping out into a wide corridor, he made his way straight over to a window and stared out, with appalled