The Antares War
The Antares War is a science fiction novel - trilogy by the American author Michael McCollum , which was written between 1986 and 2002. The three volumes:
- Antares Dawn - Antares: Dawn
- Antares Passage - Antares: Passage
- Antares Victory - Antares: Victory
build thematically and temporally on each other and deal with a war of humanity - waged in the 26th century - against an intelligent race, the Ryall , which claims the same space sector for itself.
prehistory
Folding dream
The central element of the story of the three novels is the so-called folding dream . In 2078, while surveying stars in the Milky Way , the astronomer Baschi-Ben Suleiman discovered that their real positions differed from the computer models. Thereupon he postulated a theory according to which space-time is not only curved by masses, due to their gravitation , but also folded in itself. This creates fold lines that lead radially away from large masses, for example the central black hole of the Milky Way. He also predicted that smaller masses, like that of stars, could affect these fold lines. On the one hand, they attract them, which means that the fold lines are not straight, but rather in complex patterns. Furthermore, masses can also bundle the fold lines. As an analogy, he named the effect of optical lenses on light rays. So-called fold points occur at particularly strong bundling points . These are elliptical areas in the space-time continuum at which entry into the folding space is possible. When a spaceship releases a certain amount of energy in a certain pattern within a fold point, it is transported along a fold line to the nearest fold point. It can get back in the same way. Folding points are always connected in pairs and thus form fixed routes. It is the only way to move faster than light . Two fold points have been discovered in the solar system. One leads to Luyten's Star , a 12.5 light years distant dwarf star, which in turn is a foldable connection to Wega has. The second fold point leads to a nameless system, which was later named after Robert Goddard . The Goddard system in turn has another folded connection with the red giant Antares as well as another to an unnamed system, which was later named after Konstantin Eduardowitsch Ziolkowski . Until 2639, Antares was the only known star that had 6 folding connections, and until its transformation into a supernova on August 3, 2512, it was the central traffic connection in human-inhabited space. Four of its long focal length folding points were created by the mass of the star's shell, two of its folding points, according to Goddard and Braxton, were of short focal length and were created by the mass of the core.
Supernova of 2512
The human-populated folding space was dominated by the red supergiant Antares , which acted as a hub - similar to a turnstile - and united almost all primary folding space connections in its immediate vicinity. On August 3, 2512 at 5:32 p.m. standard time, a cosmic catastrophe occurred when Antares exploded in a supernova , significantly changing the entire folding space of human hegemony .
The first episodes were visible in the Napier system, only 15 light years away from the supernova. Immediately after the explosion, the folding space connection between Valeria and Napier disappeared. This cut off the Valeria system with the Alta Colony from the rest of human civilization. At the same time, a new fold point appeared in the Napier system. After two exploration vessels explored this foldpoint, the New Providence colony on Napier VII was attacked by an alien species called Ryall, killing millions of people. In 2527, the supernova's front wave hit the Napier system, destroying all life that was left after the Ryall attacks. At the same time, however, the new foldpoint also disappeared into Ryall territory.
But it wasn't just the Napier system that was affected. In the more distant Aezer system, a new folding space connection to the territory of the Ryall also appeared, as well as in the Constantine and Klamath systems. In addition, a new direct connection to the Antares Ring Nebula was created in the Klamath system, while the connections from Antares to Braxton, Saracen, Grundle and Faraway disappeared or became impassable.
Just 30 years after the supernova, the Ryall conquered the Constantine system, another 40 years later the Aezer system. This also cut off the colony on Sandar in the Hellsgate system from human hegemony, as the route via Aezer after the supernova was the only passable folding space connection to Earth. When the Klamath system was conquered by the Ryall, the enemy fleet was only 4 folding point jumps away from the earth.
action
In 2637, 125 years after the supernova, the front wave passed through the Valeria system. Shortly afterwards the fold point to the Napier system reappears. This begins the following plot of the first novel.
Antares: twilight
The former colony world Alta has been cut off from the rest of humanity for over a hundred years when the supernova lights up in the night sky and the radiation front of the explosion passes the system and once again heralds the distant catastrophe that changes life on Alta so lastingly has determined. Immediately afterwards, however, the observation telescopes on the planet detect an alien spaceship in the system, which is accelerating out of the system with an initially unknown destination. The Altan space battle cruiser Discovery under the command of Richard Drake is sent to intercept and investigate the alien ship. When they finally reach it, it turns out that the ship is the wreck of the giant battleship Conqueror of the Terran Space Forces. Two things are now certain for the Altaner , their isolation has come to an end, and beyond their system, humanity is at war. Based on these findings, the Alta government decides to send a small expedition , consisting of the Discovery , the City of Alexandria - a decommissioned interstellar cruise ship - and two tankers , to the neighboring Napier system to investigate the situation in their former mother colony, New Providence . On board the City of Alexandria are the most diverse political, religious and economic groups from Alta as well as the leading scientists of the planet who are to study the folding space and the nova. Also on board is the representative of the hereditary ambassador of the earth, the historian Bethany Lindquist, who will later become Drake's wife.
The four ships set out under Drake's leadership and finally reach New Providence . There they discover that the planet and almost all cities on him a nuclear conflagration fell victim and the planet because of this and because of its proximity to the Antares contaminated -Supernova and is uninhabited. In the rubble, they first find indications of what happened immediately after the collapse of their own folding space connection . In the Napier system , a new - temporary - folding space connection opened up , through which the hitherto unknown Ryall launched attacks on New Providence every twelve years . The first could be repulsed and claimed only minor casualties in the colony. The second attack immediately before the radiation front passed through was more successful and permanently destroyed human civilization on the planet. Furthermore, one finds out that the Ryall - a reptilian-like race - due to their genetic conditioning and the experiences made in their past seem to be unable to accept another intelligent race besides their own and therefore wage a war of annihilation against all of humanity.
Based on this knowledge, Drake decides to fly further into the Hellsgate system , in which he hopes to find the sister colony Altas Sandarsons World . And indeed they meet the first humans there for over a hundred years: the Sandarer , as they call themselves - ruled absolutistically based on their immediate war experience - have been fighting the Ryall since the explosion . They have also been isolated from the rest of humanity for a good 20 years and stand alone in their system against the strangers, but try to hide this from Drake and his people.
Immediately before Drake wants to fly back to Alta with the expedition, the Sandarer fight against the Ryall at the folding point , which the humans can decide for themselves. Drake now discovers the weakness of the Sandarer and the resulting immediate danger for his own home. When the Ryall attack again, they manage to overcome the folding space fastenings and advance into the interior of the system. Drake now offers his help and the combat capabilities of Discovery to counter the common threat. In a short battle with many losses, the Ryall are only barely defeated by the fleet of the Sandarer and Drakes Discovery , so that the immediate danger is averted for the time being.
Antares: passage
Both Alta and Sandar governments know that they cannot stand up to the Ryall on their own and are looking for a solution together. The only viable route, however, is through the remains of the Postnova in the Antares system . A joint expedition is sent out to find a way to earth and into human-populated areas. The two fleets meet in the Napier system and then advance together into the region around Antares . There in the midst of the Postnova, the center of which is dominated by the remains of Antares - which is now a radiation-intensive neutron star - they begin exploring the folding space . Soon they will find a new and unknown fold point . Drake on board the Discovery receives the order from the Sandarian commander in chief about the joint expedition to investigate the unknown foldpoint more closely and to undertake a transition into the otherworldly system. Drake assembles his combat group and dares to make the transition.
There they find an unknown system that houses a small Ryall outpost . When they discover people, they do everything to warn their own of the impending danger. Inadequately equipped, they try to get the message across with an old ore freighter. But Drake is faster and can hijack the freighter and with it the valuable information in its on-board computer. On the soil of the populated planet, people capture a handful of surviving Ryall , including the manager of the Varlan mine, with whom Drake's fiancée Bethany Lindquist is now concerned. After erasing all traces of their presence, humans leave the system called Corlis by the Ryall Eulysta and its planet , and return to the Nova Nebula.
There they examine the data recovered from the freighter's on-board computer and determine that it is the navigation logs, with the help of which they are for the first time able to get a complete picture of the folding space and the extent of the hostile Ryallhegemonie .
In the meantime, the ships remaining in the nebula were able to locate another fold point that leads via the star Goddard into the Earth's solar system. The expedition leaves and actually arrives on earth. There Drake and his comrades-in-arms are more reserved than they are welcomed with joy, especially since they ask the Earth Government to fight with them against the Ryall for the lost Aezer system , in order to restore a regular connection between Alta and Sandar with the rest of humanity . The Terran authorities agree to examine the plan. Meanwhile, Drake and Lindquist marry on earth, as they swore on the first expedition to Sandar .
After the review of the joint plan by the earthly naval strategists , they come to the conclusion that there is no point in retaking Aezar . Instead, you offer to evacuate both worlds and resettle people from both systems on other worlds. Drake and his colleagues turn down this offer. Drake, trying to find a solution, now conducts intensive investigations into the retrieved navigation data. He comes to the conclusion that in the long run not only the two systems Valeria with his home planet and Hellsgate with Sandar will not be sustainable , but that all of humanity will lose the war. The reason for this is the type of opposing folding space , in the center of which lies the double star system with Spica A and B and around which the entire folding space of the Ryall closes like a concentric sphere. Because of this, the Ryall always have the inner and shorter line of defense and can thus use their resources far better than humans. Drake devises a plan to bring the war to the heart of Ryall's room and finally win it there.
Antares: victory
Drake, meanwhile promoted to Admiral , receives news in his home system Valeria that the Ryall managed to advance into the Novan Nebula, but that they were destroyed by the guard there. This event is the agreed sign of the implementation of Drake's plan, which provides for Spica as the central hub of the Ryall in terms of their economic and military power to neutralize. Armed forces across the human hemisphere are now setting out to implement this plan. The various combat groups unite in the Antares Nebula and begin the invasion of the area ruled by the Ryall . The invasion is progressing well and the humans manage to capture Spica and block the folding space transitions for the Ryall .
As a result, there is a stalemate at the front in Spica's system . The Ryall are constantly trying - but uncoordinated - to recapture the system while the humans try to block it and slowly wear it out . Drake's wife, who stayed behind on Alta , soon made the experience there that support on the home front began to crumble and the politicians were considering finding a final and quick solution to the war by exterminating all of Ryall . Furthermore, she makes a decisive discovery with Ryall Varlan, who has been captured on Corlis - with whom she has befriended despite all adversities - through which she believes she can end the war without mass murdering the Ryall . Previously it was always assumed that the Ryall, due to their genetic conditioning, view the fight against humans as a kind of natural reaction and selection from which they cannot let go, Bethany now makes the opposite discovery with Varlan , as this is entirely against their instincts begins to act. She and Varlan now go to Drake.
Once there, she tells Drake about her discovery. Tired of unnecessary slaughter in the Spica system , he agrees and looks for a way to convey Bethany's way of resolving the conflict to the Ryall . This becomes possible when Drake and his companions find a lonely Ryall ship , which has retreated into the vastness of space during the first battles for Spica . You can convince the captain of the warship with the help of Varlan. He agrees to allow them a passage to the Ryall homeworld . Drake, Bethany, Varlan, and a few others head to the Ryall homeworld to meet with the leaders of the race and negotiate their unconditional surrender .
On the homeworld they meet at first with rejection, but Drake and Bethany are able to make the Ryall politicians more and more clear that the war with the fall of Spica is lost for them and that the human race threatens to exterminate their entire race. The Ryall let Drake and his family return to Spica without giving them an answer. Immediately after Drake is back in the Spica system , the Ryall attempt one last desperate attack on the human-held foldpoint . This attempt fails with heavy losses for both sides. After the Ryall see they have finally been defeated, they surrender unconditionally.
Web links
German editions
- 1986: Antares Dawn
- German 1996: Heyne TB 06/5382, ISBN 3-453-09443-3 , Antares expires
- German 2004: Antares: Twilight in the anthology Heyne PB 87910, ISBN 3-453-87910-4 , The Antares War
- German 2007: Antares: Twilight in the anthology Heyne TB 52222, ISBN 3-453-52222-2 , The Antares War
- 1987: Antares Passage
- German 1998: Heyne TB 06/5924, ISBN 3-453-13312-9 , Antares-Passage
- German 2004: Antares: passage in the anthology Heyne PB 87910, ISBN 3-453-87910-4 , The Antares War
- German 2007: Antares: passage in the anthology Heyne TB 52222, ISBN 3-453-52222-2 , The Antares War
- 2002: Antares Victory
- German 2004: Antares: Victory in the anthology Heyne PB 87910, ISBN 3-453-87910-4 , The Antares War
- German 2007: Antares: Victory in the anthology Heyne TB 52222, ISBN 3-453-52222-2 , The Antares War