The Octagonal Raven

Someone is trying to kill Daryn Alwyn. Born to privilege, with pre-selected genetic advantages and the best nanotech augmentation his father's fabulous money can buy, Daryn spurned the lucrative family Media Network to seek his own path, a crafty raven among soaring eagles. After serving with distinction as a space pilot in the military, he enjoys success as a media consultant. But when he finds himself the target of sophisticated murder attempts, his world is turned upside down. It seems unlikely his success outside the family business could have inspired such expensive assassination attempts, and his father and brother and sister would be more obvious targets within the family. Then his sister is killed, and Daryn is her heir--suddenly one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Modesitt's new SF thriller lays bare the prejudices of the powerful in a fascinating future society, and reads like an express train.

L. E. MODESITT, JR. lives in Cedar City, Utah.

Chapter 1
Earth Orbit, 375 N.E.
 
 
Had the orbital watch alert satellite contained a human being, or even a sophisticated duoclone, that being might have scanned the data and reported something like, Object classified as cometoid…spherical-octagonal, diameter forty-three meters, density two point five, composition approximately eight-two point four percent water…carbides and carbonates approximately fifteen percent…iron and sulfides, silicates and oxides below detection levels…orbital…trajectory at variance with origin in either Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt…
Instead, the AI merely squirted its data analysis to the Long Watch Asteroid Collision Center satellite inhabiting the L5 point above the water planet below. In turn, the AI calculated orbital mechanics, trajectory, and mass composition and, after ensuring the object did not trigger any action parameters, stored the data for later retrieval.
In time, the comet-like object intersected the thin upper atmosphere on the planet's night side, creating a long and brilliant trail that flashed across the high latitudes and lasted but for a few long seconds before vanishing.
The thousands of particle-sized contaminants also eventually slowed and began to drift through the atmosphere toward the oceans and landmasses below.
The central AI in the Long Watch Asteroid Collision Center satellite received the report of the ice-meteorite's dissolution and added the data to the records of others of that class.
Eventually, a human methodizer reviewed the date, frowned at the octagonal dimensions, checked it again, and then shrugged.
 
Copyright © 2001 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.