Paralogia
Paralogia | |
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Meta Information | |
Author | Peter |
Genre | Science fiction |
Type of Narrator | Third person |
Characters | |
Protagonist(s) | Wisteria Guinevere Amesidian Black Opal Carbonado Lyris Amaliana Ayam Kamari Isla Clotho Earendel Minerva Ikima |
Antagonist(s) | ??? |
Setting | |
Timespan | 474 CE |
Locations | Empyrium Invirian |
Relevant organisations | Empyrium Invirian |
Other related pages | Eos Saga Memoria |
"Paralogia" is the first proper book and second plot arc in the Eos Saga. Set 14 years after the prologue of the saga, "Eos at the Gates of Dawn", it follows Guinevere, Amesidian, Lyris Amaliana, Ayam Kamari, Clotho, Earendel and Minerva as they try to uncover the mastermind behind the murder of the Laconian delegation at the Imperial Conference, while fighting to survive amidst the ensuing Laconia-Empyrium war.
Plot
Premise
14 years after Eos was repositioned in the San system, the Eosians are integrated into the Empyrium, and Black Opal, Carbonado, Isla and Amesidian are trained by Guinevere and Wisteria for a role in Empyrium politics. They are heading to the planet Sentor for the Imperial Conference, an annual event in which delegations from all systems of the Empyrium meet to do business, conduct trade talks, and socialise.
Synopsis
Black Opal, Carbonado, Isla, Amesidian, Guinevere and Wisteria arrive at a space station orbiting the planet Sentor for the Imperial Conference. They are preparing to approach the Laconian delegation to discuss sending Eosian workers to assist in the planet's development, so that it may leave behind its status as an Imperial-governed world. While they enjoy a drink, they head to their hotel rooms while Carbonado and Amesidian go their separate ways. The others encounter the Laconian delegates Lyris and Otto in the elevator, the former leaving a lasting impression on Isla. Lyris appears eager to begin discussions before the banquet has even begun, but Guinevere shuts this idea down. They find Carbonado again at the hotel, only to find he has ran into some old acquaintances (the Earendel delegation) - Clotho, Earendel and Minerva - who had assisted the others in helping to destroy Amesidian's Flavros Project. Although Amesidian had had a change of heart since then, she grows awkward from this encounter and backs off.
Everyone is called into the banquet hall where dinner is served. The group is introduced to Ayam Kamari from Beta Venera whom Isla had reservations about earlier. In her head, she takes note about the condition of Ayam's non lead representatives who come from Imperial systems, whereas Ayam comes from a free system. Black Opal notices Imperial guards and the Junior Vizier of the Empyrium (who is second-in-line to the Emperor), walking in. Isla notices tension between the non-leads from the Beta Venera system, and Black Opal suggests that they are not fearful of the Imperial Authority, but rather Ayam's position as head of a richer world, giving insight into the class disparities in the Empyrium. As dessert is about to be served, Isla notices Lyris and the Laconian delegation rushing to leave the hall, followed by Imperial guards. Fearing for Lyris' safety, Isla chases after her. She follows her to the elevator, where an altercation between the two ensues. Lyris accuses Isla of sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, explaining that there is an "emergency" back home she must attend to. As they reach the docking station, Isla beckons her to remain at Sentor, citing the importance of not allowing the worker deal to fall through. Frustrated with Isla, Lyris lashes out, only for her ship to explode behind her, with everyone else on board losing their lives.
Meanwhile, the banquet upstairs is halted immediately, and all delegations are evacuated to the hotel. Minutes turn into hours and days, as people wait patiently for news other than the confirmation of a "terrorist attack" to be released. Isla and Lyris are discovered and are put into custody, assumed to be the culprits of the attack. The junior vizier personally interviews the two, as well as Guinevere and Ayam, coming to the conclusion that Isla, guided by a staunch pro-Imperial stance, unilaterally acted to remove anti-Imperial voices from the Laconian delegation through the attack. She is arrested pending her arraignment and court date. The Eos delegation meets up with the Earendel delegation, Lyris, and Ayam to discuss where to go following Isla's arrest. Universally agreeing that she has been scapegoated for the disaster in order to avoid civil unrest, they are confronted by the junior vizier. They allow them to investigate the nature of the crime on their own, but that they must not make it apparent that they have the backing of the Imperial Authority to do so, as it would undermine the power of Isla's scapegoating. Ayam suggests that they go to the planet Iophiuchi which hosts the Imperial Investigation Bureau, so that they can conduct meaningful investigative work of the data that they possess. Wisteria, Black Opal and Carbonado volunteer to return to Eos to watch over the system.
Guinevere, Clotho, Earendel, Minerva, Lyris, Amesidian and Ayam board Wisteria's ship - the Starlight Serenity - in order to make their journey to Iophiuchi. As they jump into voidspace, the Earendel trio remark about how Wisteria planted the garden on board as an artistic statement that offers a look into her protective nature, and how it reflects that of the Imperial Authority. Clotho points out that weeds have unintentionally appeared in the garden, and implicitly suggests that the terrorist attack was caused by a force from beyond that has gone unchecked, and that the group must also go to the planet Sadiym to talk to the Empyrium Border Force. Arriving at Iophiuchi, Ayam guides the others to the IIB ofices, leading them to a sub-level housing BREDA, an AI that he designed to have access to the IIB's entire repository. In the meantime, the Grand Vizier (first-in-line) visits Isla on the planet Althani and explains the nature of her arrest, asking her to place her trust in her friends that they will find the masterminds. Back on Iophiuchi, BREDA concludes that, from the forensic evidence plus the nature of the event, the terrorist attack was an act of suicide provoked by an unknown sponsor who is the mastermind. Lyris suggests contacting Laconia personally to come to a definitive conclusion, but BREDA warns against this, saying that her trusted friends on Laconia may be compromised, much to Lyris' shock. Undeterred by this, Ayam leads the others back upstairs to the communications centre, and orders the workers to establish a direct line to Laconia, which fails.
The workers explain that the Laconian communication centre is shut down on their end, confirming BREDA's theory. Clotho, Earendel and Minerva are ordered to return to the Starlight and prepare for departure. Suddenly, the IIB headquarters is attacked by unknown forces with immense strength, prompting Ayam and Lyris to evacuate the civilians whereas Amesidian and Guinevere prepare to battle their way through the chaos to reach the Starlight. They find the enemies possess immense strength and resilience, are well-armed, and are supported by an extensive space fleet. As they reach the exterior, they find Ikima, a dragonrider from the planet, and with his help, they ride the Fiyana dragon back to the Starlight, where Guinevere offers him refugee status on the ship with the other civilians. Just as the enemy forces begin to overwhelm them, everyone boards the Starlight and they depart under heavy spaceship fire. although Guinevere is wounded. Ascending through the planet, they prepare for a void jump, where Lyris is deeply saddened to learn that they were under attack by Laconia, who had just declared their secession from the Empyrium and has been rapidly invading the New Colonies. Heeding Clotho's idea, Amesidian makes the void jump to Sadiym just as a Laconian blockade threatens to destroy the ship.
Arriving on Sadiym to find it abandoned, the group plans to copy a large batch of the Empyrean Border Force archives; Lyris stays on the ship however, and Guinevere and Amesidian head to the communications centre to give their friends back on Eos an update. While the data is being copied, Guinevere manages to contact Wisteria, explaining to her how Sadiym has been abandoned, and how the locator beacon has been shut down to deter a Laconian invasion. To Wisteria's dismay, Guinevere explains that she wants to reactivate the beacon to purposefully draw the Laconians to the abandoned planet for a fight, believing that it will alleviate pressure on the Border Force. After ending the call however, the two search through the station's logs and find that Sadiym has not been fully evacuated, but instead the military personnel have relocated to the other side of the planet. Amesidian realises that the planet's star being a pulsar means that it is an incredibly powerful radio source, and that the Laconians will always know how to find Sadiym anyway. Realising that they have been caught in the middle of the Border Force's trap, they call Clotho, who has just returned to the Starlight with the data, urging her to evacuate. The Starlight takes off as Guinevere and Amesidian aim to find the Border Force through a teleporter located near them. As they try to leave Sadiym, the crew of the Starlight is confronted by a Laconian fleet, only to watch it be engaged by the Border Force, who had been waiting for the moment to ambush. Earendel takes control of the ship and changes heading, plotting a voidspace jump to Alsujin. Minerva questions this, and Earendel tells her about how he found a crucial piece of data while searching in the Archives that could lead them to the mastermind. Before their escape, Earendel commands Clotho to send a copy of the data back to Eos. After jumping into voidspace, he explains that he found an encrypted voidspace lane between the planets Primio and Thrallix, the latter of which is unknown, and located in a region of space deemed impossible to traverse - the Alkidian Superanomaly. They decide to investigate the route, as it is the strongest lead yet for uncovering the mastermind - the unknown sponsor of the Laconian war.
On San, Wisteria is in constant contact with Sakura and Hecate, who are also searching through copies of the data packet that Clotho and the others retrieved. Sakura explains that she found information pertaining to the disappearance of Psychotria, which had happened ten years prior, revealing that he was spotted with a stolen ship near Primio. When the Starlight arrives at Primio, they prepare to make the jump, and contact Wisteria. Wisteria sends them a copy of the Psychotria data, revealing that he undertook the same void jump that the others were about to make, and was never seen again. Black Opal suddenly remembers that the Psychotria that arrived on Eos 14 years prior was not the real Psychotria, but a memetic entity commissioned by Clovis Gershwin - the administrator of TERAPRO - to take his place to investigate the murder-suicides in the facility. He and Sakura had learnt this fact, then promptly forgot it, explaining that the nature of this memetic entity made those who learnt about it forget the details. Clotho suggests that they must attempt to find Thrallix to uncover both the mastermind and the truth behind Psychotria's disappearance. Wisteria adamantly warns against it, suggesting that they will die trying, but Clotho cuts her off to prepare for the voidspace jump. They make the jump, but immediately run into issues as the ship hits a large anomaly within voidspace. As the ship seems to be on the verge of destruction, ghostly blue figures appear in the bridge and shield others from injury, while also taking control of the ship to put it into another voidspace jump within voidspace. Ayam says that the ship cannot handle another jump as the core is badly damaged, but it manages to pull through the transit. Exiting voidspace, the group finds themselves orbiting the planet Thrallix, while an automatic update to the ship leads the group to discover the existence of the Invirian Ascendancy, a space nation hidden from the galaxy within the Alkidian Superanomaly. Convinced they have found the mastermind behind the Laconian war, the group vows to discover the truth behind Invirian, and Psychotria's disappearance.