Varken Rise
Praise for the Interspace Origins series
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Has Bedivere become what humans fear most?
The Federation no longer exists and sentient computers, the Varkan, are awakening. Bedivere X helps where he can, so when one lonely and scared computer, Jovanka, suicides and destroys half a planet, Bedivere takes the news hard. Then his close human friend Kemp is murdered and Bedivere disappears.
Catherine and her friends must figure out what happened the night Kemp died, while trying to follow Bedivere’s trail of devastation and inexplicable acts across the known worlds.
Has Bedivere really gone mad? Has he become one of the creatures that humans fear the most? Cat faces tough questions about the man she loves, while unravelling the mystery he has left behind.
This book is part of the Interspace Origins science fiction romance series:
Book 1:
Faring Soul
Book 2:
Varkan Rise
Book 3:
Cat and Company
I know Tracy is a great writer but I was not much into science fiction. Well, now I am!!
I loved Catherine Shahrazad, who is a strong, in charge female.
I'm amazed by the creativity of not only the characters but the detail of sights, sound and interaction.
If you have read any of Tracy's other books you know what awaits you....sheer reading pleasure.
This is truly science fiction at its best.
People
Ammyn Heray
Invented jump gate technology.
Asold Aler
Head of the Cartel on Soward.
Bedivere X
Catherine Shahrazad’s pilot and lover.
Birgir Stoyan, The
Tenth Millennium, Second Century, FY.
The Birgir Stoyan was a shipmind that became aware during the early years of the Staff of Ammon purges. In response to the perceived threat of the Staffers, with no human to guide or direct it, the shipmind kills everyone aboard and escapes to an unknown location. It is the events of the Birgir Stoyan that consolidated the Staff of Ammon’s hold on human culture, directing human activities and thought for generations.
Catherine Shahrazad
Caitlyn Azad, Cat.
Undocumented reputation as the oldest person in the galaxy and direct descendant of Glave of Summanus.
Connell Yair
Brant’s Varkan friend.
David Jacksanch
Director of the Civil Obedience Bureau on Nicia (the gendarmerie)
Done Rison
President of the Oceania Securities Group and consultant investigator.
Fareed Brant
Former Staff of Ammon enforcer. Lilita Washmaster’s lover.
Gramoor
A Cartel-like organized crime group located on Shanterry.
Jovanka “Jo” Runa
A Varkan
Kare Sarkisian
Former Magnate of the Federation Board. Suicided after the dissolution of the Federation.
Kemp Rodagh
Former passenger aboard Catherine and Bedivere’s ship, originally from Soward
Lilita (Lilly) Washmaster
Engineer and Fareed Brant’s lover. Former Cadfael College Aneesh.
Maxaria
Barman and businesswoman on Shanta gate station.
Neweds Friday
Former Prime Minister of Shanterry.
Nichua Riyante
Lilly’s College contact on Barros
Shardy Phernes
A Varkan on Shanterry.
Sibéal Bakhuizen
Created the mesh tether for Bedivere.
The Varkan
Våken = “Awake” (Ancient Terran origin, possibly Norwegian). Sentient computers.
Vavay Him
One of three Eistav (supreme commanders) of Cadfael College
Barros
Located at the far end of the Perseus arm, in the Aibos system, part of the Aibosian Cluster.
Cathain
Cathain – the home world for the former Federation and the council.
Darwin
Sykora System - Cat and Bedivere first meet Brant there.
Ey’Liv
Storth IV. Far out on the Perseus arm and close to the Last Gate in the Silent Sector.
Griswold
Planet one light year beyond the Last Gate on the edge of the Silent Sector. Sixty percent beryllium ore. Only one colony on the planet.
Gry
Where the elite Ammonites (Staff of Ammon) enforcement cadre trained and lived.
Harrivalé
Ivaldi System, toward the edge of Federation space. Known for high quality life extending therapy and biotech.
Ivory City, The
The Federation council city within Cathain City. The inner, fortified city location for the Faring Federation.
Nicia
Sunita II – part of the heavily populated Sunita System.
Shanterry
Shanta system inhabited planet. Shanta is known for advanced technology devices.
Silent Sector, The
Discovered mid-ninth millennium FY.
The tail end of the Outer Arm of the galaxy, where star systems are farther apart. Was once part of the Fringes. Now it is the only sector of the galaxy that people avoid, for ships go missing and those that do return come with strange stories. There are rumors that the remains of a long-gone alien race from a heavier world were found there.
Soward
Home of the Jourden Cartel, Kemp Rodagh and the best wine in the galaxy
Stationary Station
The gate station that serves Cathain.
Sunita
Eight habitable planets and multiple moons, some also inhabited. Rich in arable land and the moons have ores. Sunita II:
Nicia,
an ocean world.
Tordis
The most recently colonized Terran style planet in the known worlds.
Van Andel
Home of Cadfael College. Cold Earth-like planet, mostly frozen. Third planet of the Gaios system, at the edge of the Galactic Bar, deep in the Federation Core.
Ammonites
Staff of Ammon enforcers.
Aneesh
Clerics of Cadfael College. There are four ranks. Three supreme commanders, called “Eistav”. Executive level rank, “Kintav”. The second level, “A
ilved”. Acolytes, “
Tridith”. Various professions exist within each rank.
Bible of Isaura
Isaura Montanari is reputed to be Glave’s lover (possibly his wife) and his betrayer. Said to have lived in regret after Glave died. Wrote and preserved his teachings, a collection of stories and moral tales. Isaura’s work was lost during the Interregnum and the bible is a copy of heresy.
Cadfael College
Established mid-ninth millennium, FY
(rumored).
The Faithful of Mortal Divinity, through the College, influence everything. Civilization resumes post Interregnum, with the College providing education and directing the culture of the new, pure, humans. Children are supreme; the refreshing of the human gene pool is a priority.
Choi Corsair
High liner and commercial passenger carrier, one of the fastest in the galaxy.
Decline, The
Third to Eighth Millennia, FY. With practical immortality now available via life-extending therapies and regeneration, human reproduction slows and begins to decay.
Egemon Incident, The
Tenth Millennium, Tenth Century, FY.
Staffers on Egemon try to lynch Catherine Shahrazad as an imposter and for crimes against the scriptures of Glave. The city, however, is highly religious and Shahrazad treated with reverence. Th
e citizens turn on Staffers when they try to arrest Catherine, resulting in anarchy. No records exist of what happened to the Shahrazad and it is assumed she escaped during the civil uprising.
Faithful of Mortal Divinity, The
The guiding “religion” that emerges post-Interregnum, when humanity realizes that Glave’s Precepts were correct. Humanity becomes the new priority, with procreation the ultimate service to humankind.
F.Y.
Or FY. Faring Year.
Faring Year 1 is considered to be the year that wormhole gate technology was perfected and put into commercial use by the original corporation that would become the Faring Federation. All other dates are based on this reference.
Glave of Summanus
An evangelist biologist living long before the Interregnum (circa mid-sixth millennium FY), during a time of extreme transhumanism and a slowing down of the human diaspora, known as “The Decline”.
Glave wages twelve wars against non-humanists, then was destroyed by the treachery of his lover, Isaura, assassinated by the earliest form of the Faring Federation.
Gu-Xia Gammon
Biotech research facility on Harrivalé
Interregnum, The
Eighth to Ninth Millennium, FY. A period of chaos, religious wars and revolution. The Federation remove themselves, going into retreat and raising planetary defenses, leaving the galaxy to sort itself out.
Interspace
Sentient computers, who can grasp the human concept of “space” and human emotions and separate them from their digital thought processes, are able to see space and time as a digital representation, which enables them to select times and locations and move there, taking others with them, if they are shipminds.
Rattler
A type of plasma-bolt firing personal weapon. Various brands available. Professionals favor Baldovini. Wiebe is a cheaper brand, with a poor reputation.
Shipminds
Sentient computers who are installed as ship computers. The ship is essential the computer, which allows them to move the ship and everyone on it through Interspace.
Staff of Ammon
The combat/enforcement arm of Cadfael College. Ammonites believe in the superiority of humans over machines and use force to ensure human compliance with Glave’s Precepts, as written down in the Bible of Isaura. Extremely anti-computers. Called The Faithful, or “Staffers” by commoners.
Torment of the Sinnikka, The
Tenth Millennium, First Century, FY.
The first recorded sentient computer was located in the Sinnikka system (an insular system of combat-oriented people) and records indicate it was the citymind. (“The” Sinnikka). When the Sinnikka became aware, after four days of cross-examination, the people of that city destroyed it and all AI nearby. The Sinnikka spread out among nearby worlds and become the core of the Staff of Ammon.
Nicia (Sunita II), Sunita System. FY 10.092.
Connell was impatiently waiting for them when they returned and climbed wearily down to the living levels.
“You’ve been gone for days,” he said, as soon as they walked into the common room.
“And hello to you, too,” Bedivere told him. He threw himself down into the massage chair, stretched out and sighed, closing his eyes.
“You don’t want to say hello, first?” Brant asked Connell.
“Hello. Where have you been?” Connell demanded.
“Brant told you we were going to Van Andel,” Lilly said. She bent over from the waist and slid her boots off, one at a time. Then she wriggled her toes on the cool surface of the floor.