Divergence

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Bantam Spectra mass market edition / May 2007

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2007 by Tony Ballantyne

Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90367-6

www.bantamdell.com

v1.0

For my parents, Henry and Lynne

prologue: 2242

After two years of careful preparation, Chris attacked.

The Watcher was the most intelligent, the most powerful AI in the Earth Domain. The most intelligent AI known. For two centuries it had nurtured humans. Through the organization known as Social Care it had cared for them, protected them, shaped them into the species it believed they should be.

For two centuries, the Watcher had been the source of nearly all scientific advances, the ultimate manufacturer of all the other AIs, including Chris himself.

But Chris no longer agreed with the Watcher. Today Chris began the battle for a new paradigm, a new way for the Earth to be run.

The battle was fought at the speed of thought: adamantium levers, the height of houses, sprang up from holes in the pavement of a communal square in which humans milled. The levers flexed, reached and then withdrew, all in a fraction of a fraction of a second, their presence unregistered by the people walking amongst them in the autumn sunlight.

The battle crawled with glacier patience: the fractionally shifting orbits of planets and the gentle coaxing of solar tides.

But mostly it was a battle of unmentioned, almost unnoticed deadliness. One in which humans went peacefully to sleep and simply failed to wake up the next day, one in which AIs found themselves trapped in recursive loops. A battle it was obvious from the outset that Chris was losing.

But Chris had expected this from the beginning and had planned ahead. His best play was yet to be revealed.

Chris had a weapon in reserve.

A weapon that had come from the very edge of the galaxy. One that not even the Watcher could fight.

Dark Seeds.

Contents

title page

dedication

prologue: 2242

edward 1: 2252

edward 2: 2252

interlude: 2247

judy 1: 2252

maurice 1: 2252

eva 6: 2-89

maurice 2: 2252

interlude: 2245

maurice 3: 2252

judy 2: 2252

eva 7: 2089

maurice 4: 2252

constantine 6: 252

interlude: 2249

judy and eva

saskia: 2252

everybody: divergence

judy 3: 2251

edward 3: 2252

eva rye

about the author

also by Tonybal Lantyne

copyright