Steel Sky
Published by Per Aspera Press, a division of Viridian City Media, Seattle.
www.perasperapress.com
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Originally published in hardcover format in 2006 by Per Aspera Press (
ISBN-13: 978-0-9745734-5-8 / ISBN-10: 0-9745734-5-0)
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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Steel Sky, © 2006 by Andrew C. Murphy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from both the copyright holder and the publisher.
Designed by Karawynn Long
Edited by Jak Koke
Cover illustration by Linda Hsien-Ling Tso
Map © Andrew C. Murphy
Steel Sky
eISBN: 9781123202656
For Shawna
CONTENTS
Deep History • Visions • The Thing in the Closet
Three-Fourths of a Child • Building Blocks • Two Lifetimes • Silver Fingertips • Almost Zero • Firsts and Seconds • Elegy • It Wouldn’t Hurt • A Female Visitor • Mosley’s Body • Justify
Blueshift • A New Man • Archaea • Makeup • Discroom • Terminus • Contradiction in Terms • History Lesson • Side Passage • Courtesy Credit • The Inexcusable Crime • Tomorrow Has Come • Air of Disaster • Legend
Thirteen • Pinky • Breather • The Calling • Comity • Hormesis • Possible Futures • Holding On To the World • Arrangement • The Stranger • Always Falling
Father of the Bride and Groom • A Window to the Sun • Reunion • The Next Dimension • The Boy in Shaft Seven • True Love • The Way of the Stone • Referendum • Department Of Human Identification • Nexus • Last Wishes • Within
Image
End Time • The Aspirant • Conformation • Trials • Other Services • In The Shadow of Koba • Points Of Order • Born Down, Looking Up • Survival Of The Fittest • Death Watch • The Witness • The Eating Room • Logic and Power • A Question of Character • The Punishment • Escape • Intersection • Regrets
Inventory • Verdicts • Triumph of the Will • The Breath of the Hypogeum • Imagination • Cadell • Death Wish • Contemplating the Infinite • The Short, Cold Christmas • Pressed For Time • Missing • Quiet • The Message • Where Life Begins • Epiphany • The Story • The Shadow Heart • Options • Blind Love • Puppets • Broken Glass
Personal Information • One Man • The Origin of the World • The Innocents • The Face of the Culminant • Sibling Rivalry • Forbidden Ground • Curiosity Piece • Home • Off-Center • Technology • Cold Comfort • Faces • Epicenter • Saved
The Slow, Inevitable Slide • Perpetual Tribute • Old Business • Surface Area • Final Orders • The Darkening Of the Sun • Need • Staging Area • Agon • The Voice of Dead Eyes • The Perfect End to the Perfect Day • Terminus • Manual Override • Descent • The Tipping Of the Balance • Ascension
Revelation
INHABITANTS OF THE HYPOGEUM
NULL-CLASS CITIZENS
Orcus the 16th:
Master Scrutator; unofficial master of the Hypogeum
First Son (“Stone”):
His elder son, deceased
Second Son (“Hump”):
His younger son, heir to the title of Master Scrutator
First Daughter (“Dancer”):
His older daughter, formerly affianced to Stone
Second Daughter (“Pinky”):
His younger daughter
Harrel Selachian:
Culminant of the Prime Medium, the political body that governs the Hypogeum
Eno Selachian:
His son
PRIMARIES
Edward Penn:
A physician
Amarantha Kirton:
An electrician; one of the Engineered
Cadell Tichener:
Her lover; a functionary for the Prime Medium; minor member of the Rakehells
Thraso Tammerlyn:
An aide to the Resource Allocation Committee; a powerful Rakehell
SECONDARIES
Orel Fortigan:
An engineer in the waterworks
Bernie Pratt:
His friend; also an engineer
Kitt Marburg:
A chatter
Gordon Golubitsa (“Gloss”):
Proprietor of an electronics repair shop
TERTIARIES
Pilchard Horsen:
A clop and security guard
Faith Lessup:
A wife and mother-to-be
QUATERNARIES
Astrid:
A milcher and demimondaine
Samael:
Her agent
OTHER
Image:
The Hypogeum’s holistic simulated intelligence
The Winnower:
A demon; the Dark Spirit of the Stone made flesh
Observe, my son — silently, without impatience and without judgment. Now that you are the eldest, this is your duty, and your honor. Of all the skills you must learn to become a man, patience and acuity will serve you the best. Open yourself to receive every detail, no matter how small. From the basher boxes to the Hall Mediary, from the lowest subdecks to the remote mechanisms of the Sun, no deed can escape your black glass eyes. The only thing that can protect the people from your scrutiny is your own preconceptions. Open yourself. Open yourself to the world, and it is yours.
DEEP HISTORY
A crouched figure hurries through dusty, dimly lit rooms. The interior of the museum, like that of most buildings in the Hypogeum, is a maze of soffits and buttresses, the result of over three hundred years of imperfect additions and restorations. The intruder, dressed simply in loose dark clothing, dodges from one blind to another, keeping his head low when crossing open space.
The air is still, thick, and warm. The only sounds are the soft pad of the intruder’s feet and the sharp hiss of his breath. As he nears the exhibits, they glow from within, illuminating their contents and describing them in a toneless recorded voice.
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In his last days, Koba became obsessed with fear of assassination
,” the voice murmurs as the intruder passes a display containing a strip of black cloth and a crudely painted portrait. The man in the portrait is old and bald, with heavily lined eyes and pouches of wasted muscle around his mouth and jaw.
“He retired to a featureless, brilliantly lit room that he never left. He allowed no one to enter unless the person’s eyes were covered with a special blindfold. Food and water were passed to him through a small hole in the door . . .”