Shiva in Steel (1998)

1 An all-new Berserker . novel! D-315-flt35t-fl I 5 CAN) A master of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, Saberhagen is one of the most prolific and inventive novelists of our time. Now, in Shiva in Steel, he returns to the riveting saga of the Berserkers, a race of intelligent machines devoted to exterminating all organic life. In a sector of the galaxy occupied by Earth-descended people, one Berserker computer has suddenly and mysteriously developed a tactical strategy unlike anything the human opposition has seen before. Shiva, like the Hindu god of destruction after which it was named, annihilates entire colonies with the help of its fiendish subordi nates. Commander Claire Normandy strug gles to prepare for Shiva's attacks, while Pilot Harry Silver realizes that he must deal with his own demons in order to help her. When the Berserkers approach, a decision is made to destroy the destroyer, whatever the cost. Neither side, howev ared for the incredible risks that c the artack becomes imminent. C ndy, Silver, and their forces face the that (com r fla p ) SHIVA IN STEEL Tor Books by Fred Saberhagen THE BERSERKER SERIES The Berserker Wars Berserker Base (with Poul Anderson, Ed Bryant, Stephen Donaldson, Larry Niven, Connie Willis, and Roger Zelazny) Berserker: Blue Death The Berserker Throne Berserker’s Planet Berserker Kill Berserker Fury Shiva in Steel THE DRACULA SERIES The Dracula Tapes The Holmes-Dracula Files An Old Friend o f the Family Thorn Dominion A Matter o f Taste A Question o f Time Seance for a Vampire A Sharpness on the Neck THE SWORDS SERIES The First Book o f Swords The Second Book o f Swords The Third Book o f Swords The First Book o f Lost Swords: Woundhealer's Story The Second Book o f Lost Swords: Sightblinder’s Story The Third Book o f Lost Swords: Stonecutter’s Story The Fourth Book o f Lost Swords: Farslayer’s Story The Fifth Book o f Lost Swords: Coinspinner’s Story The Sixth Book o f Lost Swords: Mindsword’s Story The Seventh Book o f Lost Swords: Wayfinder’s Story The Last Book o f Swords: Shieldbreaker’s Story An Armory o f Swords (editor) OTHER BOOKS A Century o f Progress Coils (with Roger Zelazny) Dancing Bears Earth Descended The Mask o f the Sun Merlin’s Bones The Veils o f Azlaroc The Water o f Thought The Face o f Apollo FRED SABERHAGEN SHIVA IN TOR® A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. SHIVA IN STEEL Copyright t) 1998 by Fred Saberhagen All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. This book is printed on acid-free paper. A Tor Book Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 Tor Books on the World Wide Web: http://www.tor.com Tor* is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Saberhagen, Fred. Shiva in steel / Fred Saberhagen. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (The Berserker series) “A Tor book”—T.p. verso ISBN 0-312-86326-8 I. Title. II. Series: Saberhagen, Fred, 1930- Berserker series. PS3569.A215S48 1998 813'.54—dc21 1 First Edition: September 1998 Printed in the United States of America 098765432 SHIVA IN STEEL ONE Five thousand light-years from old Earth, on an airless planetoid code-named Hyperborea, in side the small Space Force base that was really a sealed fortress, unexpected visitors were rare, and even more rarely were they welcome. The lone ship now incoming had been a total surprise to everyone on the base when it was detected about an hour ago by the early warning net of robot pickets that englobed the en tire Hyperborean system. Since that sighting, Claire Normandy had been Fidgeting in her base-commander’s office, distracted from her other duties by watching the interloper’s progress on the larger of her two office holostages. Normandy was neat and slender, with straight black hair and coffee-colored skin. Her usual voice and manner were quiet. In her Job she assumed authority, rather than continually striv ing to demonstrate it. At first encounter, most people tended to think her dull and colorless. Less immediately apparent was 8 FRED SABERHAGEN another tendency, a love of gambling when the stakes grew very high. The commander’s uniform today, as on most days, was the workaday Space Force coverall, suitable for wear inside space armor, when the need for that arose. Her age was hard to esti mate, as with most healthy adults; and within broad limits, chronological age was not a very meaningful measurement. The unscheduled caller’s reception at the base was not going to be particularly cordial. It had been tentatively iden tified as a privately owned spacecraft named Witch o f Endor, engaged in mineral prospecting and a variety of other small- business ventures, owner and operator Harry Silver. Once, some fifteen years ago, Claire had had a brief encounter with a man of that name, and she had no reason to doubt that this was the same person. Informed of the Witch’s approach by superluminal courier Just minutes after the far-flung robotic eyes of base defense had detected it at a distance of around a billion kilometers, Com mander Normandy had opened communications with the pilot as soon as the distance delay for radio communication fell under a minute. When the visitor, speaking calmly enough, had pleaded recent combat damage and a need for repairs, she had ordered his ship to stand by for inspection. In a matter of min utes, one of her patrol craft had matched velocities. Her people had gone aboard the Witch and one of her own pilots was now bringing the civilian craft in for a landing at the base. Her alertness was heightened by a certain message that had come in by long-distance courier a few hours earlier and been promptly decoded. Claire was still carrying the hard copy of that message in her pocket. For a moment, she considered tak ing it out and looking at it again—but really there was no need. It came from from sector headquarters on Port Diamond, and was signed by the chief of the Intelligence Service there. Below the usual Jargon of routing and addressing, it read simply: SHIVA IN STEEL 5 GOOD EVIDENCE KERMANDIE SECRET AGENT IDENTITY UNKNOWN HAS TARGETED YOUR BASE FOR PENETRATION. OBJECTIVE UNKNOWN. YOU ARE DIRECTED TO APPLY HEIGHTENED SECURITY MEASURES TO ANY RECENT OR NEW ARRIVALS, PARTICULARLY CIVILIANS. When Claire had first laid eyes on the message, her immediate inner reaction had been: What civilians? There were seldom any here, and at the moment, not even one. And her second reac tion, not long delayed: What evidence? She supposed she would never be given an answer to the second question. As for the first, about civilians, now it seemed that she might soon be going to find out. When she tired momentarily of focusing her attention on the intruder, she turned, gazing out through a clear window at a dark horizon, the jagged line of an airless and uneven surface only a fraction of a kilometer away, but five thousand light- years from the sun whose light had nourished the earliest years of her own life—as it had, long ago, those of the whole race of Earth-descended humans. The rotation of the planetoid be neath her feet was swift enough to set the stars and other ce lestial objects in visible motion, rising in an endless, stately progression from beyond that jagged line. Months ago, she’d learned that she need only stare for a little while at that perpet ually sinking horizon to induce a feeling that the world was somehow giving way beneath her. The whole cycle of rotation was several minutes long, and during various segments of that great circle, the light of distant galaxies predominated. Looking out as it did over the landing field, the com mander’s office window offered a view of several robotic inter stellar couriers, poised for quick launching. Each was sited in its own revetment, widely spaced along the near side of the ar 1D FRED SABERHAGEN tificially flattened surface that served the base as landing field. Half a kilometer away, on the far side of that field, set into a naturally vertical wall of rock, were the hangar doors through which arriving vessels were admitted to the interior docks and berths that had been carved out of the rock into several sub terranean levels of hangar space. The Witch of Endor was going to touch down a couple of hundred meters from those doors, the first unscheduled visitor to land on or even approach this planetoid in more than a year. The ship’s sole occupant before the Space Force had come aboard, the man identifying himself as the ship’s owner, Harry Silver, had made no objection to being boarded, but rather, had been relieved to hand over the controls. Two days ago, or even yesterday, Commander Normandy would not have been made quite so edgy by an unforeseen arrival; but today she had been eagerly expecting quite a dif ferent set of visitors, vitally important ones, and they were already almost two hours overdue. Any suggestion that the day’s schedule of events was going to be disrupted was most unwelcome.

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