JESSUP, ROLF—shadow-Xayan, originally from Ridgetop.
JHERA—Xayan telemancer preserved in slickwater, lover of Birzh; now the counterpart of Antonia Anqui.
JONN—Crown Jewel planet, ruled by the Hirdan family.
JORDAN, CRAIG—Adolphus’s chief of security, now managing part of the Hellhole defense forces.
KAPPAS—Crown Jewel planet, ruled by the Paternos family.
KEATS, HUME—worker on Buktu, as well as a pilot who flies with Ian Walfor.
KERRIS—linerunner ship operated by Turlo and Sunitha Urvancik, named after their dead son.
KIAFA—popular hot beverage.
KLIEF—Crown Jewel planet, former home of Sophie and Devon Vence.
KOMUN, GEORGE—planetary administrator of Umber.
KOUVET, CAPTAIN—security officer at Council City Spaceport.
LASSEN, OWEN—representative from Teron.
LINERUNNER—maintenance ship that travels along the stringline paths to check iperion integrity.
LODO—male Xayan, one of the three surviving Originals, assigned to studying the museum vault.
LUBIS PLAIN SHIPYARDS—large military shipyard on Qiorfu.
LUMINOUS GARDEN—one of the spectacular gardens on the grounds of the Diadem’s palace.
MACHI—Crown Jewel planet.
MAGEROS, LADY OPRA—noblewoman, descendant of one of the families that brought about the downfall of the Osheers.
MAIL DRONE—small automated packet that travels along the stringlines.
MALIBU, HENRY—deacon among the Children of Amadin, former doctor.
MARUBI—Crown Jewel planet.
MAYAK, TOBNER—scientist on Sonjeera.
MCLUHAN, EVA—a linerunner who committed suicide in deep space between destinations.
MERCIFULS—secular order of nurses.
MICHELLA TOWN—main colony town on Hallholme; referred to colloquially as Helltown.
MORAE, ELWYN—first administrator of Candela.
NARI—drilling supervisor on Hellhole.
NAX, BEBE—Tanja Hu’s administrative assistant on Candela, mother of Jacque.
NEHL—young orphaned girl, a member of the Children of Amadin.
NELL, LADERNA—assistant to Ishop Heer, also his lover.
NEPHILIM—Deep Zone planet, supposedly the site of a fountain of youth.
NERON, FERNANDO—Hellhole colonist, first man to immerse himself in slickwater and take on an alien personality, Zairic. Fernando-Zairic served as spokesman for the shadow-Xayans, until he was murdered on Sonjeera along with other emissaries.
NICLES—Deep Zone planet.
NOAB—Crown Jewel planet, home of the Crais family.
NOABY—valuable jewel mined on Noab.
NOMOLOS—Deep Zone planet.
NOORMAN, CAPTAIN FELIX—captain of a scout ship aboard the Constellation fleet.
OBERON, LANNY—supervisor in iperion mines on Vielinger.
OGG—Crown Jewel world where Osheer family was exiled.
ONGENET, ARIA—beautiful wife of historical Diadem Philippe the Whisperer, known for her numerous lovers, which she often entertained at her Cottage on the Pond of Birds.
ORIGINAL—one of five Xayans preserved in the vault against the asteroid impact: Allyf, Encix, Cippiq, Lodo, and Tryn. Only three remain alive.
ORSINI—one of the Crown Jewels, ruled by Lady Enva Tazaar.
OSHEER—centuries-old variation of Ishop Heer’s family name.
OSHEER, LORD ELMAN—Osheer patriarch at the time of the family’s disgrace.
OSHU—Deep Zone planet.
PACKARD, ERNST—one of Adolphus’s trailblazer captains who died establishing the line to Ridgetop.
PARRA, ZINN—noble descendant of one of the families that disgraced Ishop Heer’s ancestors.
PASSENGER POD—cargo container with life support and amenities, used for transporting people along stringline network.
PATERNOS—noble family from Crown Jewel planet Kappas, rivals of the Tazaars.
PATERNOS, LADY JENINE—ruler of Crown Jewel planet Kappas.
PENCE, TORII—trade representative of the Hirdan family from Jonn.
PHILIPPE THE WHISPERER—historical diadem, husband of Aria Ongenet.
POND OF BIRDS—small body of water on the grounds of the Diadem’s Palace, site of the romantic, luxurious Cottage.
PRINIFLOWER—medicinal plant native to Ridgetop.
PRITIKIN, LUKE—one of the Diadem’s inspectors on Hellhole.
PUHAU—isolated mining village on Candela, wiped out in a mudslide.
QIORFU—Crown Jewel planet, site of the Lubis Plain Shipyards; original home of the Adolphus family, now ruled by the Riomini family and administered by retired commodore Hallholme.
QUIRRIE, TONA—real name of Antonia Anquie.
RAPANA—iperion-processing center on Vielinger, site of an industrial fire.
RICKETTS, COLONEL—representative of the Army of the Constellation.
RIDGETOP—forested Deep Zone planet best known for its goldenwood groves, administered by Carlson Goler, site of a massacre that was covered up by Diadem Michella.
RIDGETOP RECOVERY—massacre that occurred when Constellation forces razed an existing colony on Ridgetop to clear the way for new settlement; the truth was covered up by the Diadem.
RIOMINI—powerful noble family headquartered on Aeroc.
RIOMINI, GILAG—former Riomini lord who helped Michella establish her power base.
RIOMINI, LORD SELIK—head of the Riomini family, Supreme Commander of the Army of the Constellation; he is also called the Black Lord.
RO-XAYAN—rebellious Xayan faction.
ROLLER—small all-terrain vehicle.
RONOM—Deep Zone planet.
ROYAL RETREAT—one of the Diadem’s seven official residences.
RUE DE LA MUSIQUE—the Street of Music, run-down section of Council City where Ishop Heer has his secret office.
RULLINS, JAKO—abusive man, former lover of Antonia Anqui.
SANDUSKY—one of the Crown Jewel planets, known for biological research.
SAPORO—harbor city on Candela.
SHADOW-XAYANS—humans who have accepted a Xayan personality from the slickwater pools.
SLICKWATER—Xayan liquid database of lives.
SLICKWATER SPRINGS—settlement out at the three original slickwater pools.
SMOKE STORM—meteorological event on Hallholme.
SONJEERA—capital planet of the Constellation, heart of the Crown Jewels, seat of power for Diadem Michella Duchenet. Also, site of the central stringline hub for all travel throughout the Constellation.
SONJI PHEASANT—game bird native to Sonjeera, considered a delicacy.
SPENCER, LIEUTENANT JOHAD—former weapons officer during Adolphus’s rebellion, now his staff driver.
STAR THRONE—the Diadem’s throne on Sonjeera.
STATIC STORM—dangerous electrical-discharge storm that occurs on Hallholme; colloquially called a “growler.”
STRINGLINE—ultrafast interstellar transportation system that follows quantum lines of iperion laid down across space.
STRINGLINE HAULER—large-framework ship that is loaded with cargo containers and passenger pods; travels back and forth from Sonjeera to a designated stringline terminus.
STRINGLINE HUB—central point from which all the transportation lines radiate; the Constellation’s only hub is on Sonjeera.
STRINGLINE TERMINUS—endpoint of a stringline, a station in orbit over a destination planet.
SUZUKI, RANDOLPH—chocolatier, member of a fallen noble family.
SVC-1185—blue-giant star, site of a stringline power substation on the route to Ridgetop.
TANINE—Crown Jewel planet, site of a brief uprising.
TASMINE—Governor Goler’s old household servant, only survivor of the Ridgetop Recovery.
TAZAAR—powerful noble family headquartered on Orsini, rivals of the Riominis.
TAZAAR, LADY ENVA—head of the Riomini family, also an aspiring artist.
TEHILA—most distant Deep Zone planet, home of semi-intelligent herd animals.
TELEMANCY—Xayan telekinetic power.
TELLO, FRANCK—officer in the first rebellion, General Adolphus’s best friend, killed during the Battle of Sonjeera.
TELOM, DAK—officer in the Army of the Constellation, secretly a spy for General Adolphus.
TERON—Deep Zone planet.
THERIS, RENDO—administrator of the Ankor spaceport complex.
THESER—Deep Zone planet, administered by Sia Frankov, home of eccentric spacedrive engineers.
TIER, DOM CELLAN—planetary administrator of Oshu.
TILLMAN, ARMAND—cattle rancher on Hellhole.
TRAILBLAZER—a ship that lays down a path of processed iperion to create a new stringline route.
TRAKMASTER—heavy-duty overland vehicle used on Hellhole.
TROMBIE, BUXTON—Duchenet family attorney.
TRYN—female Xayan, one of the three surviving Originals.
UETER—Deep Zone planet.
ULMAN, LIEUTENANT RICO—test pilot at the Lubis Plain shipyards.
UMBER—Deep Zone planet.
UNDINE, GOVERNOR MARLA—one of the five territorial governors of the Deep Zone, arrested and held as a political prisoner.
UPBOX—cargo container launched into orbit, where it is picked up by a stringline hauler.
UROA—Xayan leader whose presence now shares a body with Keana Duchenet.
URVANCIK, KERRIS—son of Turlo and Sunitha, killed in military service shortly after the end of Adolphus’s rebellion.
URVANCIK, SUNITHA—stringline runner, married to Turlo.
URVANCIK, TURLO—stringline runner, married to Sunitha.
VENCE, DEVON—son of Sophie Vence, boyfriend of Antonia Anqui. A shadow-Xayan, his alien counterpart is Birzh.
VENCE, GREGORY—former husband of Sophie Vence, father of Devon.
VENCE, SOPHIE—powerful merchant woman in Michella Town, in a relationship with General Adolphus.
VIELINGER—Crown Jewel planet, source of iperion, formerly ruled by the de Carre family, now a holding of the Riomini family.
VOBBINS, JALUKA—head of the Theser spacedrive engineers.
VOJA TREE—a type of willow common on Vielinger, whose bark is said to have medicinal (and some say spiritual) qualities.
VONDAS, CAPTAIN—expedition leader on original colony ship to Buktu.
VUARNER, PRIEMA—last noble victim on Ishop Heer’s list.
WALFOR, IAN—administrator of Deep Zone planet Buktu, with shipyards and ice mines. Previously, he was a black-market runner who delivered supplies to DZ planets without using the stringline.
WARRIOR DIADEM—Edwond the First.
WEILIN, EVELYN—socialite woman from a noble family fallen on hard times; descendant of one of the twelve nobles who caused the disgrace of the Osheer family.
XAYANS—original race of inhabitants on Hellhole.
YARICK—Constellation noble family.
ZABRISKIE, SERGEANT FRANCONE—trailblazer pilot for Army of the Constellation.
ZAIRIC—Xayan leader who originally proposed the slickwater preservation plan; his presence joined with Fernando Neron, both killed by Diadem Michella.
OTHER BOOKS BY BRIAN HERBERT AND KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Atreides
Dune: House Harkonnen
Dune: House Corrino
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
Dune: The Machine Crusade
Dune: The Battle of Corrin
Hunters of Dune
Sandworms of Dune
Paul of Dune
The Winds of Dune
Sisterhood of Dune
Mentats of Dune*
Hellhole
BY FRANK HERBERT, BRIAN HERBERT, AND KEVIN J. ANDERSON
The Road to Dune
(includes the original short novel Spice Planet)
BY BRIAN HERBERT
Dreamer of Dune
(biography of Frank Herbert)
*forthcoming
About the Authors
Brian Herbert has written numerous novels, including Man of Two Worlds with Frank Herbert, The Race for God, and Sudanna, Sudanna. In 2003, he published Dreamer of Dune, a Hugo Award–nominated biography of his father.
Kevin J. Anderson has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers’ Choice Award. He set the Guinness-certified world record for the largest single-author book signing.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
HELLHOLE AWAKENING
Copyright © 2013 by DreamStar, Inc., and WordFire, Inc.
All rights reserved.
www.wordfire.com
Cover art by Stephen Youll
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Herbert, Brian.
Hellhole awakening / Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. — First edition.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2270-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-4959-0 (e-book)
1. Space colonies—Fiction. 2. Space warfare—Fiction. 3. Life on other planets—Fiction. 4. Fantasy fiction. I. Anderson, Kevin J., 1962– II. Title.
PS3558.E617H46 2013
813'.54—dc23
2012038824
e-ISBN 9781429949590
First Edition: March 2013
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Appendix A
Appendix B
Consolidated Glossary
Other Books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
About the Authors
Copyright