A Night Without Stars

A book set in the Commonwealth Universe, sequel to The Abyss Beyond Dreams. Bienvenido has been ejected from the Void into inter-galactic space (hence the title?). This event is referred to by the inhabitants of Bienvenido as "The Great Transition", or just "the Transition". Because Bienvenido is no longer in the Void, life is very different. No-one has psychic powers any more, but on the flip side electricity now works, allowing technological progress. However, Bienvenido is now part of a solar system of nine planets, one of which is home to a Prime colony, who almost immediately launch an invasion fleet.

The rest of this article summarises plot developments in the book. If you don't want to know what happens, stop reading now!

Prologue

Nigel Sheldon has established is new civilisation in the Andromeda Galaxy. One day he is visited by Paula Myo, and it is revealed that he suffers deep feelings of guilt and shame over his actions (in reality, the actions of his clone) during his mission to the Void. He realises that he acted with unreasonable hubris, believing he could destroy the Void where the Raiel had failed. But he also believes that he destroyed Bienvenido, and more specifically killed Kysandra, because he had access to his ANAdroid's consciousness up until Bienvenido was ejected. He does not know that the planet was re-located; rather, he believes that it was destroyed.

"After my clone died in the blast, I was still dreaming my ANAdrioids' life. I watched through their eyes as Uracus opened up and devoured the whole crudding world. They were standing beside her when it happened. I heard her screams." He shook his head in frustration. "I still hear them. The whole fucking plant, Paula—obliterated. It's been two and a half centuries now, and I still hear her. There is no punishment—no suffering—great enough to fit my crime."

Book One: Another death for Laura Brandt

Laura Brandt has reached the surface, 3,000 years after her expedition arrived and she was trapped in the time loop. Slvasta is in power but has grown increasingly tyrannical, paranoid and oppressive. But the same event that freed Laura Brandt from the time loop also freed the Fallers. The egg factory (the "Forest") was sending eggs to Fall on Bienvenido at a constant rate because of the time loop, but freed of the loop the Fall rate has increased 10-fold, meaning that Bienvenido society faces an imminent existential threat.

Laura Brandt and Kysandra Blair are united in trying to both bring advanced technology to Bienvenido society as well as fighting the Faller and Prime threats. The work with the government of Slvasta even though they despise him. In fighting the Prime threat, Laura realises that the only way to beat them is to destroy their home planet completely. She is the only one that can operate the technology to do so, and to implement her plan, she has to go to the Prime planet to initiate its destruction. She does so, and in the process realises that in order for her plan to work she must sacrifice her life. She does so willingly, but uploads her memories to a device even though she knows that it will probably never either survive her plan, or be found by anyone capable of re-lifing her.

Book Two: Defence of the State

Over 250 years have passed. The government and society established by Slvasta endures, although the Fallers are still a threat. Society is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia. Laura Brandt is remembered as "Mother Laura" and her heroic self-sacrifice is celebrated annually on "Fireyear Day". Kysandra has also passed into mythological status as "The Warrior Angel", a kindly guardian angel who watches over Bienvenido and protects it against Fallers. Some people believe she is real, others think she is a story told to children, or propaganda promulgated by the Eliters, who are the Bienvenido equivalent of Highers and are antagonistic to the government.

The story takes the viewpoint of Chiang, an intelligence officer with the government. He remembers being helped by the Warrior Angel, possibly in the form of a vision, as a small child and thinks he sees her again when he is a 35 year-old man, in the bustle of Fireyear Day celebrations. Later, as he is infiltrating a nest of Fallers and is about to be overwhelmed by them, the Warrior Angel appears in the flesh and saves him. She reveals that he has Advancer genes and so is technically an Eliter, and so asks him to work to stop internal politics hindering the fight against the Fallers, and help the Eliters defeat them. She makes is clear that there are many Faller nests active, breeding more Fallers and working toward the day when there will be enough of them to directly assault the human population of Bienvenido.

Book Three: Running from a Fall

The story takes the perspective of Florian, a forest ranger who encounters an escape pod from the ill-fated expedition to the Forest, which houses the memories of Joey Stein. The pod's mission is to enact Plan B, the fallback option that Paula Myo and Nigel Sheldon concocted should Nigel's mission to the Void fail. The plan involves getting Paula into the void by growing a clone from an embryo. The pod gestates the embryo, and upon meeting Florian,gives a newborn baby to him, with instructions to raise her and keep her from harm for one month. The baby grows at an alarming rate, and Florian quickly realises that she will be fully grown, or at least a teenager, in a month. The government is desperate to acquire both the pod and the baby, and later even the local criminal gangs seem intent on locating the (by now) young girl travelling with Florian. Florian manages to elude the pursuers but at last his luck runs out and he is captured by the boss of the criminal gangs, who turns out to be a Faller. The boss is determined to either possess or kill the girl. In the ensuing crisis Paula's consciousness is transformed as her memory returns, her biononics reactivate and she frees herself and Florian. However they are pursued by the government forces, ledby Chiang and appear to be cornered with no hope of escape, when they are rescued by the Warrior Angel.

Book Six: Going Nuclear

The Faller Apocalypse, long predicted by the Eliters and denied by the Government and most of the non-Eliter population, begins. Precipitated by the arrival of Paula Myo, the Fallers steal nuclear weapons from the government, detonating one of them at the reactor and manufacturing site they were stolen from. Paula, Kysandra and the ANAdroids realise they have very limited time, and that there is a good chance they will not be able to defeat the Fallers, even with their advanced technology. Paula conceives a plan after deducing that one of the nine planets in the system is probably a Dark Fortress type prison for the Raiel expedition fleet that entered the Void a million years ago; and further deducing that at least one other Brandt Dynasty expedition ship, the Viscount, has almost certainly crash-landed in one of the polar regions of the planet. They mount an expedition to recover the technological artefacts from the Viscount in order to build a vessel to travel to the Raiel planet and free them, to ask for their help in defeating the Fallers. The expedition members include Paula, Kysandra, the four remaining ANAdroids, Florian and Ry Ervine.