EVERGENCE: THE PRODIGAL SUN

PROLOGUE

The pillow-shaped capsule tumbled end over end through the gulf between stars. Every point of its four-metre length showed evidence of age: its matt-grey surface was pitted from micro-impacts; the molecules of its ablative shield were scarred by radiation; gravity waves from distant black holes spiralling inevitably to collision had warped it from true. Had it been noticed by any passing ship, it would have been ignored as flotsam, for after millennia of exploration and trade such drifting junk was common in the Galaxy. It wouldn't even have been worth the effort required to destroy it.

Had it been noticed ...

Junk it may have appeared to be, but it was far from that. A detailed analysis of the skin of the capsule would have revealed that nothing -- not even radiation -- penetrated deeper than five centimetres. It had retained its structural integrity despite the forces tugging at it. And, had its density been measured, the fact that it was hollow would have become immediately obvious.

As it tumbled through the void, sensors within monitored the frequency and intensity of incident radiation. It emitted nothing, yet analysed in minute detail everything that fell upon it. Data was collated and processed. Three-dimensional maps were drawn, on which the course of the capsule -- past and future -- was plotted. Options were considered.

The capsule had passed through numerous governments and territories during its long journey: from the Giel, remote and aloof in the Perseus Arm, to the Bright Suzerains tucked hot and hardy close to the Galactic Core. There was hardly a solar system in the Milky Way that had not been colonised or explored at least once by the Human race in all its forms. The descendants of the apes who had once reached in wonder for the night sky now owned the stars. They were the sole heirs of a Galaxy ripe for the taking.

Decisions were made.

Patient exploitation of the local magnetic field brought the capsule to the boundary between two nations: one an unwieldy alliance that had outlived its usefulness and was already dissolving under the weight of administration and ennui; the other a small but heated theocracy bursting like a boil from its parent's side. Stray emissions -- some almost certainly decades out of date -- carried reports of occasional conflict, harried officials, rising tension ... The capsule didn't care much for the details, just as long as there was friction, an ambient heat it could exploit. Who fought who was irrelevant. There was only one Right and Wrong it cared to recall, for it was this duality the capsule existed to serve.

It was a seed looking for soil in which to germinate. A seed that had come a long way and waited a long, long time, to bear fruit. A seed whose interior became increasingly active the more certain it was that the end of its journey was near ...