BOSUN
A member of Finch’s engineering crew mining on
the moons of Neptune.
CARAKAS
An absent-minded philosopher in Roum, on Hud.
CELIA DARPAGIO
Head of a top European research team specialising
in alien artefacts.
DREESA
Hudnee’s wife on Hud, the medieval planet.
ERETH LAWSON
Head of a nuclear accelerator creating Orscantium on
an outer planet of the Alamos system.
FALLOSTRINA
A village head in the Mersa town of Little Worthystead.
FEDIC VITS
Highly trained operative working for Regent Cordez.
FLORENCHANTAINE ENGLE
Known as Finch. Mining engineer promoted to leadership
by Cordez.
GEELONG
Aboriginal starship pilot, part of Cordez’s personal staff.
HABNA
Wise woman at Shellport on Hud.
HUDNEE
Pilar builder (places of worship) on Hud.
JIM SEATOUN
Leader of an engineering team for Joe Lightfoot.
JOE LIGHTFOOT
Owner of a large engineering workshop on the
Canadian plains.
KALKEN-AR-WUYR
Commander of an Invardii flagship.
KANUK
Son of Hudnee and Dreesa, later Javelin pilot.
JUBILATE
Member of Celia’s research team.
MANOBA CORDEZ
Regent of the SouthAm trading block. The most
powerful man on Earth.
MATSU FUJIMI
One of Finch’s engineering team, later brilliant
inventor.
MEEANIRO
Mersa physicist on the planet Alamos.
MENON
Hunter from Shellport on Hud.
MENONA
Menon’s wife.
MORDISELLI
A village head in the Mersa town of Little Worthystead.
NEUMAN CAGILL
Defector from Earth forces who rises to command the
Prometheus Javelins.
PARAPSANNI
Sumerian leader of the Par’Sanni Revolutionary Reform
Party on Uruk.
PARTHENI
Regional leader of Descendants of the Prophet on Hud.
ROBERTO
One of Celia’s research team on alien artefacts.
SALLYANNE MONTOYA
Cordez’ personal assistant and specialist in off-world
cultures.
SARSANNI
Par’Sanni ‘second’ in Sumerian caste system. One of
the few to escape the destruction of Ragnarok.
SUBTHREE
Later Subdirector. Orion translater used by Druanii
because speech patterns were so different.
THE COLLECTOR
Solitary, long-lived life form on Mentuk, the Caerbrindii
home world.
APPENDIX C
LOCATIONS.
ALAMOS
Mersa home planet.
AQUA REGIS
Also known as Hud. Medieval planet, home of the Hudnee
people.
ANTARES
Red supergiant sun, containing the Invardii central city.
BA’H’ROTH
Home world of the Rothii.
BA’REGAN
Capital city of Uruk, the Sumerian home world.
DEIMOS
The smaller of Mars’ two moons, 15km long.
K’SART’OS
Capital city of K’Sarth, the home world of the K’Sarth.
K’SARTH
Home world of the K’Sarth.
LITTLE WORTHYSTEAD
Small town on the planet Alamos, home of the Mersa.
Place of first contact between Human and Mersa.
MENTUK
Home world of the Caerbrindii, the first sentient race in
the galaxy, who gave rise to Druanii, Rothii and Invardii.
NEEROK
Sumerian water world, with little dry land and much
undersea mining.
OROUTH
Ancestral home planet of the human race.
PROMETHEUS
Human manufacturing facility on Proteus, one of the
smaller of Neptune’s moons.
QUARANTINE PLANETS
Planets Sumerians may not contact, as per Rothii
instructions.
RAGNAROTH
Ancient Rothii space station, now researched for Rothii
technology. Destroyed by Invardii during first attack
inside Sumerian/Human space.
ROCKHAVEN
Sumerian seaside settlement on Uruk. Gathering place
during the evacuation of the planet.
ROKAR
Sumerian industrial planet. Completely mined out and
heavily polluted.
ROK’H’ROK
(Sometimes H’Rok) Sumerian mining world and industrial
base of Sumerian empire. Home of Sumerian war fleet.
ROUM
Capital city of the medieval planet Hud. Descendant
stronghold.
SANCTUS
Hidden planet of the Orion race, provided by their
Druanii protectors.
SAUROK
Sumerian forest world, devastated by Invardii.
SEENIROK
Dry Sumerian world where survivors are settled after
Invardii attacks on other Sumerian worlds.
SHELLPORT
Fishing village on Hud where outcasts have gathered
to build a new life. Destination of Hudnee and his
family on their journey.
Kantari (longhouse) description of the place on Orouth
where the research team finds the Valkrethi.
URUK
Sumerian home world.
APPENDIX D
RACE AND CASTE GROUPINGS.
BUCCRA
Prison race closely controlled by the Invardii,
sometimes used as shock troops.
CAERBRINDII
Original sentient race in the galaxy. Due to ‘cultural
dissonance’ split into Druanii, Rothii and Invardii.
CENTAUR
Druanii protectorate race.
DESCENDANTS OF THE PROPHET
Self-appointed group on Hud who claim religious
control of the planet.
DRUANII
Hybrid race descended from Caerbrindii. Inhabit
outer reaches of the galaxy.
HUDNEE
Inhabitants of Hud. Medieval water planet with
one large continent. Also one individual.
HUMAN RACE
Home planet Earth. Instrumental in forming and
leading an alliance against the Invardii.
INVARDII
Hybrid race descended from the Caerbrindii who
attempt to annex Sumerian and Human space.
K’SARTH
Trading race under Sumerian protection.
MAGENTA
Druanii protectorate race.
MERSA
Home planet Alamos. One of the races that form
an alliance with Earth against the Invardii.
ORION
Druanii protectorate race, used as a translator to
communicate with Druanii human allies.
PAR’BRAHMAD
Leadership caste in Sumerian society. The equivalent to
a Regent on Earth would be a Para’Par’Barahmad.
PAR’SANNI
The ‘first mate’ or ‘lieutenant’ caste in Sumerian society,
charged with carrying out their leader’s (Par’Brahmad
caste) orders.
ROTHII
Race descended from the Caerbrindii who vanished
2
00,000 Earth years ago, leaving the Sumerians to carry
on using their technology.
SHEOMAL
Wandering, singing, shaggy giants on Orouth.
SUMERIANS
Species whose technology has remained the same since their
masters the Rothii left 200,000 Earth years ago. One of
the races that form an alliance with Earth.
VALKRETHI
War machines left on Orouth by the Rothii until the
human population transplanted to Earth was advanced
enough to use them.
END OF BOOK ONE
ALWAYS BACKWARD
Second Book in the INVARDII series.
Warwick Gibson.
© 2018 Warwick Gibson.
All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER.
ALSO by WARWICK GIBSON
And available at Amazon Kindle
THE UNSOUND PRINCE (Sword and sorcery fantasy)
ROUGH JUSTICE (Small town Chief of Police)
MARIC’S REPRIEVE (SAS thriller set partly in Borneo)
STRUGGLE FOR A SMALL BLUE PLANET (Sci-fi thriller)
The INVARDII Series
ANCESTRAL HOME
ALWAYS BACKWARD
MEDIEVAL PLANET
BOXED SET: BOOKS 1 -3
FEDIC VITS (coming soon)
RISE OF THE VALKRETHI (coming soon)
ANTARES CRUCIBLE (coming soon)
Table of Contents
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
APPENDIX A APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C APPENDIX D
DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST.
My name is Herodotus. I am an historian.
I have been given the task of putting down a permanent record of the terrible events of the last four years. This duty has been placed upon me by Regent Cordez of the South Am trading block, the most powerful person on Earth today.
If this planet and its people do not survive, it is Cordez’ hope that this record I write will be discovered some time in the future, by races from far-flung star systems, and we will not be forgotten. In this paper, one small part of that record, I turn now to the earliest beginnings of the Invardii wars.
These were the months and years when strange events were simply curiosities, and did not yet hold the promise of our own doom. Even Cordez, at the centre of his vast information network of people and machines, did not I think suspect the Invardii would appear so suddenly, and to such devastating effect.
Working with the extensive archives now at my disposal, I am forced to ignore some bodies of data, and strengthen the connections between others, in order to build a solid plotline with a distinctive theme.
Only when they are taken together do these papers give a full picture of what the last four years have been like. The story of unending loss of ground, and defeat after defeat, that has been the lot of the Human race, and also the Sumerians.
The material I am working with is taken largely from the personal logs of the people involved, vidlink interviews where personnel are still alive, and ships’ recordings. The reader will forgive me if I add some imaginary details to my stories to make them more coherent.
In this paper I am reminded of earlier days and happier times, when all things still seemed possible, and we all thought problems would be overcome with a little more time and effort.
The first of these papers, ‘Ancestral Home’, has now been published, and has provided the people of Earth with the reasoning and context they needed to accept that we are not, originally, from this planet.
Public opinion has swung back firmly behind Regents Cordez and Asura, the de facto ‘King and Queen’ of Earth, and it is partly to the story of their relationship, and their rise to power, that I turn in this second paper.
Once again, I refer you to the appendices below, which cover the entire four years in depth, as they may be needed.
Appendix A provides a time-line covering all four years.
Appendix B consists of brief descriptions of locations.
Appendix C describes the main characters.
Appendix D covers the racial groupings.
CHAPTER 1
________________
A red, rocky landscape cut with splashes of burnt purple shambled its way to a horizon that was impossibly close. A twenty-second dash would cover it with ease, except a one-second dash without a spraysuit would kill you. The Sun shone feebly above a rock the size of a house, putting out the light, and heat, of a thirty watt night light.
Neptune added its meagre light from behind the mining base, and all the control room lights had been turned off. It was the only way to get a real sense of what was outside.
The psych books said don’t do it, you’d go mad. Miner’s claustrophobia they called it. The craving to be outside just once, to get away from an artificial environment and the constant living of an artificial life.
Florenchantaine put his feet up and looked out the window, except it wasn’t the best thing for the sample analyser he put his feet on, and strictly speaking it wasn’t a window. It was good enough though. It had a recognisable sill and surrounds, even if the glass was only a vidlink screen from a camera in the outside wall.
Sometimes the crew would turn on the outside lights and look out the ‘window’ under more normal conditions, reassuring themselves that the rest of the universe was still there – but tonight the lights were off. Florenchantaine was feeling sombre for some reason. He had a sense of foreboding, of things not going right, of something he had forgotten that wouldn’t come back to him.
“Hey, Finch, you want a game?” said one of his mining team. Bosun hefted an old-fashioned pack of cards. ‘Finch’ was a good shorthand version of a name the miners found too pretentious. The name might remind them of a small, fluttery bird, but Finch was a mining boss you could trust when the going got tough.
“Yeah, that’d be good,” said Finch slowly. The contests of skill fought over a card deck were legendary in mining camps throughout the Solar System. Out here they preferred something solid, something they could touch, to while away the time. Too many hours in front of screens, too much time in a simcomm environment, left the miners with a distaste for anything that felt like technology.
Finch looked at the little, curved, bent and craggy horizon of Neptune’s second moon one more time, soaking in the sense of freedom, and levered himself up.
“You okay?” quizzed Bosun as he eased up the lights to halfway and started to deal cards onto the bench in front of him. Finch smiled. Bosun always asked that. He was a good guy to have around on a long mining assignment. But on this occasion Finch never got to answer Bosun’s question.
The lighting strips in the ceiling began to flash one short red then two long yellow, the universal alarm signal. Bosun hit the door a second later, and Finch scrambled round the end of the bench to bolt through the door right behind him.
They made it to the control room at the same time as George and Matsu. Every panel in the proximity sensor array was lit in the same flashing red and yellow. George (‘Saint George’) was the topographics officer, and he scrambled into his seat.
“Mother of . . ,” he hissed, then stopped and checked his readings. “Rock headed for the mining site. It’s big, and it’s going to do some real damage. I’m trying to get a fix on the size and composition.”
Finch tightened his hands into fists. The
re was half the economic output of the South American trading block invested in this opencast mine, and a small fortune in industrial minerals was waiting to be shipped back to Earth.
Seconds passed. “Want the good news or the bad news, gentlemen?” said George grimly.
“There’s good?” smiled Matsu weakly.
“I think the first one’s going to miss the mining site,” said George, “but behind it there’s a scattering of smaller ones.”
“Where in all of Satan’s unmitigated hells did this come from!” exploded Bosun. “We’re planet-side of this miserable piece of rock. Neptune is supposed to protect us!”
“It can’t be headed for the mining site,” said Matsu. “Check the flight path, and find out where it came from.”
“No time,” snapped Finch. He was in charge of mining operations, and it was times like these he earned his money. He had to live with the fact he never knew when he would find himself making split-second decisions that might cost lives.
“Bosun, Matsu, get onto remote and power down everything at the opencast, and I mean everything. Don’t try to get the mining units under cover, they’re too slow.”
“George, you were going to get me some idea of size and composition,” he added. George looked puzzled. He pulled up diagnostics on several different frequencies.