Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [1]
58 Beneto
59 Nira
60 Rememberer Dio'sh
61 Davlin Lotze
62 DD
63 Basil Wenceslas
64 Tasia Tamblyn
65 Jorax
66 Berndt Okiah
67 Nira
68 Prime Designate Jora'h
69 OX
70 Margaret Colicos
71 Nira
72 Estarra
73 Rlinda Kett
74 Tasia Tamblyn
75 Basil Wenceslas
76 Jess Tamblyn
77 Nira
78 Mage-Imperator
79 Adar Kori'nh
80 Tasia Tamblyn
81 Beneto
82 Prime Designate Jora'h
83 Basil Wenceslas
84 Margaret Colicos
85 Otema
86 Nira
87 Adar Kori'nh
88 General Kurt Lanyan
89 Jess Tamblyn
90 Branson Roberts
91 Adar Kori'nh
92 Mage-Imperator
93 Raymond Aguerra
94 Tasia Tamblyn
95 Margaret Colicos
96 Basil Wenceslas
97 King Frederick
98 Otema
99 King Frederick
100 Margaret Colicos
101 Jess Tamblyn
102 Cesca Peroni
103 Beneto
104 Nira
105 Mage-Imperator
106 Basil Wenceslas
107 Tasia Tamblyn
108 Margaret Colicos
109 Nira
110 Cesca Peroni
111 Tasia Tamblyn
112 King Peter
113 Margaret Colicos
114 Basil Wenceslas
115 Louis Colicos
TIMELINE
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS AND TERMINOLOGY
1 MARGARET COLICOS
Safe in orbit high above the gas giant, Margaret looked through the observation port at continent-sized hurricanes and clouds far below. She wondered how long it would take for the entire planet to catch fire, once the experiment began.
Oncier was a pastel globe of hydrogen and mixed gases five times the size of Jupiter. Moons surrounded the gas giant like a litter of pups jostling against their mother. The four of greatest interest were large bodies of ice and rock named Jack, Ben, George, and Christopher, after the first four Great Kings of the Terran Hanseatic League. If today's test proved a success, those moons could eventually be terraformed into Earth-like colonies.
If the Klikiss Torch failed, the respected career of Margaret Colicos would fizzle along with it. But she would survive. As xeno-archaeologists, she and her husband Louis were accustomed to working in blissful obscurity.
In preparation for the experiment, the technical observation platform bustled with scientists, engineers, and political observers. Though Margaret had nothing to do with the actual test, her presence was still required here. A celebrity. She had to make a good show of it. After all, she had discovered the alien device among the ruins.
Tucking gray-streaked brown hair behind her ear, she looked across the deck and saw Louis grinning like a boy. They had been married for decades and had never worked without each other. It had been years since she'd seen him in a dashing, formal suit. Margaret could tell how much he reveled in the excitement, and she smiled for his sake.
She preferred to watch people rather than interact with them. Louis once joked that his wife had become fascinated with archaeology on alien planets because there was no chance she might have to strike up a conversation with one of her subjects.
With plenty of dirt under their fingernails and ground-breaking discoveries on their résumés, Margaret and Louis Colicos had already sifted through numerous worlds abandoned by the insectlike Klikiss race, searching for clues to explain what had happened to their vanished civilization. The alien empire had left only ghost cities and occasional tall beetlelike robots that bore no helpful memories of their progenitors. In the eerie ruins on Corribus, the Colicos team had discovered and deciphered the remarkable planet-igniting technology they had called the "Klikiss Torch."
Now excitement thrummed in the filtered air of the observation platform. Invited functionaries crowded around the observation windows, talking with each other. Never before had humans attempted to create their own sun. The consequences and the commercial possibilities were far-reaching.
Chairman Basil Wenceslas noticed Margaret standing alone. When a small-statured server compy came by bearing a tray filled with expensive champagne, the powerful Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League snagged two extruded-polymer glasses and walked over to her, proud and beaming. "Less than an hour to go."
She dutifully accepted the