(Revised in 1994 to take place between The Eternal Champion and Phoenix In Obsidian/The Silver Warriors. In the short transitional prologue “Limbo”, Erekosë falls into a dream and sees himself as Renark von Bek, Count of the Rim).
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| Roc 1992, Art: George Underwood |
Prologue
After 2 years of wandering the galaxy, Renark von Bek, who possesses an innate cosmic sense of the universe, heads to the Rim.
Chapter 1
The ex-Rim warden Count Renark von Bek rendezvous with Paul Talfryn and Asquiol of Pompeii on Migaa, a planet where, for the last 37 years, outlaws have been awaiting the next arrival of a Shifter (also known as “the Sundered Worlds”), which will allow them to escape to a new universe. As a Guide Senser with cosmic awareness, Renark is able to predict the arrival of the Shifter. Two years earlier, Renark had been a Rim Warden, using his Senser powers to help pilot ships through hyperspace. However, after encountering an alien ship, he had quit his post.
Chapter 2
Renark and Talfryn visit their spaceship where Renark uses his equipment to check on the Shifter’s location. The Galaxy Police raid Migaa, forcing Renark to abruptly take off with his partners, as well as Asquiol’s girlfriend Willow. The Shifter appears and Renark flies into it, and soon discovers a binary star system within. They are met and attacked by an alien fleet, but a second fleet appears and drives off the first fleet. After passing through an unstable timeloop, Renark’s ship is led to their rescuers’ planet, Entropium.
Chapter 3
On the refugee outlaw planet of Entropium, Renark and his crew are allowed to do anything they want except interfere with the government. Renark explains to governor Olesson that two years ago he had met humans from another galaxy (in the alien ship) and learned that the universe is rapidly contracting, and will soon shrink into nothingness. He has arrived in the Shifter hoping to find a place for mankind to evacuate to. Meanwhile, more outlaw escape ships from Migaa begin to arrive in the Shifter space.
Chapter 4
Renark finds a madwoman named Mary the Maze who tells him that the Thron (who had attacked his ship upon his arrival in the Shifter) know more about the nature of the Shifter. When Renark returns to his crew, only Asquiol is willing to accompany him to visit the Thron.
Chapter 5
Renark and Asquiol successfully reach Thron where they at first find only an empty city. However the dog-like Thron suddenly materialize and attack. After returning to their ship, they receive a message from the more friendly Shaarn in the north. After Renark and his friends arrive at the Shaarn’s camp, the Shaarn beginning telling them the story of their war with the Thron.
Chapter 6
The Shaarn tell Renark that they are in a war with the xenophobic Thron, and that in order to save their own universe they had sent the Thron home system hurtling in an orbit through the multiverse, turning it into the “Shifter”. These Shaarn are descended from the team who had been setting up the shifting technology, inadvertently drawn into the shift. Over the years, the Thron have been trying to return to their own sphere through alternate means (explaining the empty city when Renark had first arrived), so the Shaarn are now preparing to halt the orbit and strand the Shift forever in a remote sphere. Renark is worried about becoming stranded when the Shifter is halted, and rushes to make contact with the Ekiversh, who know even more about the workings of the Shifter.
Chapter 7
The gelatinous metazoa of the Ekiversh tell Renark that he should seek out the lattice planet Roth (“Ragged Ruth”) in the Abyss of Reality - a planet whose sections phase through the multiverse independently. There he may find the Originators, who exist outside/above the entire multiverse. Renark and Asquiol successfully land on Roth, aided by a Conservator, a reality-stabilizing device given to them by the Ekiversh people. Renark also senses that the Shaarn have started slowing down the Shifter’s orbit. He and Asquiol quickly heads towards the Hole, where the Originators may lie.
Chapter 8
After entering the Hole, Renark and Asquiol experience quickly-changing environments and perspectives until they are told by the Originators that they must wait until the Shifter passes through the central hub of the multiverse before they can speak. When this finally happens, Renark learns that the Originators were the race which had seeded all of the lifeforms of the various spheres of the multiverse. They had also sent the warning of the shrinking universe to Renark’s people (mankind) in order to prod them to seek the Originators out. The Originators want mankind to eventually succeed the Originators themselves. Renark is given the secret to building dimension-crossing ships to help his people to escape the universe’s contraction. Renark also learns that he will soon die (or be dispersed throughout the multiverse), but that Asquiol will continue his mission after he is gone. They also tell Renark and Asquiol that some forces in the multiverse will eventually oppose mankind’s destiny. The men are sent back to their ship.
Chapter 9
The worlds of mankind are visited by Renark and Asquiol (who have been transformed into strangely shifting, multi-versal beings). The human race follows their orders and boards ships fitted with Intercontinua-travelling (I.T.) devices, allowing Man to shift through the spheres to a new universe. Renark, however, remains behind as prophecied by the Originators, and witnesses his universe contract into nothingness, leaving him alone in that sphere.
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| Mayflower 1974, Art: Bob Haberfield |
Chapter 10
Asquiol chooses a sphere of the multiverse to stop in. Unfortunately they are soon contacted by its occupants and warned away. Asquiol tells Galactic Lord Mordan to have the ships of Mankind prepare for battle.
Chapter 11
The fleets engage in battle, inflicting many losses on both sides. Asquiol contacts the hostile alien natives through mental communication and learms that the aliens are willing to settle the conflict in a Game. The human fleet prepares a factory ship for the Game. “Psychopath” (an independent-minded outlaw) Adam Roffrey deserts the human fleet and uses his I.T. drive to shift to the Sundered Worlds, the sphere of the Shifter. On Entropium he finds an apocalyptic landscape, caused by chaotic gyrations occurring after the Shaarn had stopped the Shift system’s shifting. He finds a barely-surviving Paul Talfryn and Willow, who join him on his ship as he goes in search of Mary the Maze, who has gone to the lattice-warped planet Roth (Ragged Ruth).
Chapter 12
When Roffrey, Talfryn and Willow try to explore the mad landscape of Roth, Mary somehow appears and Roffrey takes his long lost wife back to his ship. Roffrey takes the four of them back towards the human Fleet, hoping to find a way to heal Mary’s broken mind. After traversing several bizarre spheres, they return to the human fleet’s current sphere, but find themselves caught in a maelstrom of monstrous imagery. Eventually, they mentally drive off the imagery (as well as a fleet of hostile ships).
Chapter 13
Arriving at the human fleet, they learn that mankind has been playing a Game – called the Blood Red Game because of the red-tinged imagery it involves – with the native aliens in order to gain the right to settle there. Roffrey tries to ask Asquiol to help heal Mary but he does not respond. Later, Roffrey and Talfryn are called to the Game ship, since the Game scientists wonder how they had miraculously survived the aliens’ mental attack during their return arrival.
Chapter 14
Roffrey and Talfryn are tested for any unusual abilities, but nothing is found by the scientists on the Game ship. The scientists theorize that their exposure to shifting realities on Roth might have given them some kind of advantage. Willow contacts Mordan and asks to see Asquiol.
Chapter 15
Roffrey and Talfryn are instructed in how to become Gamblers, playing the Blood Red Game. They learn that they must mentally project disturbing emotions, imagery and sensations at the aliens in order to defeat them, while the aliens do the same to the humans. They begin their shift in the Game ship awaiting the next attack. Willow contacts Asquiol, but as a multiversal being, he is no longer recognizeable. Asquiol has a feeling that something is “missing” from the multiverse.
Chapter 16
Roffrey ands Talfryn fight the aliens in a round of the sense-impression Blood Red Game and barely survive. The scientists believe that they must have prevailed in their earlier engagement due to some force amplifying their mental ability. They eventually believe that their passenger Mary, changed from her experiences on Roth, may have been that amplifier. Meanwhile, Mary regains her sanity on her own and agrees to be tested for the Game. Mary also senses a kindred spirit nearby but cannot identify who it is.
Chapter 17
Asquiol learns from the aliens that the next Game round will be the final deciding round, and that if the humans lose, then mankind will be lost. He also learns from the Game ship scientist Selinsky that Mary’s brain had been enhanced in some way on Roth, enabling her to inflict direct harm on the aliens. However, a round of the Game may also drive her totally insane. Asquiol realizes that Mary is the kindred spirit (“missing piece”) he has been sensing, and regrets that she must be sacrificed to play the Game for the sake of Humanity.
Chapter 18
When Asquiol goes to the Game ship, he and Mary recognize each others’ kindred exposure to the Originators back on Roth. In the next Game round, Roffrey, Talfryn and Willow feed power to Mary whose imagery is channeled and directed by Asquiol at the aliens. During the round Mary nearly succumbs, but Asquiol jolts her back and she transforms to gain the same multiversal awareness that Asquiol has. Strengthened, they successfully defeat the aliens.
Epilogue
Asquiol and Mary greet the aliens on Asquiol’s ship and accept their total surrender. These aliens turn out to be the opposing force the Originators had warned Renark and Asquiol about on Roth. After the defeated aliens depart, Asquiol and Mary discuss the future, and believe that other members of the human race will eventually transform as they have, hopefully enough to one day take the place of the Originators (continuing the cycle). Asquiol worries that he may accidentally lead them to a degenerate state similar to that of the aliens they have just defeated, but Mary remains optimistic.
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| Dale 1978, Art: Greg Theakston |
