Space

Space
Stephen Baxter

2020. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity, Reid Malenfant ventures to the far edge of the solar system, where he discovers a strange artifact left behind by an alien civilization: A gateway that functions as a kind of quantum transporter, allowing virtually instantaneous travel over the vast distances of interstellar space.What lies on the other side of the gateway? Reid decides to find out. Yet he will soon be faced with an impossible choice that will push him beyond terror, beyond sanity, beyond humanity itself.Meanwhile on Earth the Japanese scientist Nemoto fears her worst nightmares are coming true. Startling discoveries reveal that the Moon, Venus, even Mars once thrived with life. Life that was snuffed out not just once but many times, in cycles of birth and destruction. And the next chilling cycle is set to begin again . . .

STEPHEN BAXTER

SPACE

MANIFOLD 2

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_326505b4-c98c-527e-b8bd-551f6dbe5e17)

HarperVoyager an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk (http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2000

Copyright © Stephen Baxter 2000

Cover image of Calabi-yau manifold © Laguna Design/Getty Images

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Stephen Baxter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008134471

Ebook Edition © November 2012 ISBN 9780007499793

Version: 2015-09-01

DEDICATION (#ulink_53b6981d-1e29-5319-97fb-bc56ac62fe39)

To my nephew, Thomas Baxter andSimon Bradshaw and Eric Brown

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_9ce2d6f6-088a-5869-b539-d98c38a5977c)

Innumerable suns exist; innumerable earths

revolve around these suns in a manner similar to

the way the seven planets revolve around our

sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds …

GIORDANO BRUNO (1548–1600)

If they existed, they would be here.

ENRICO FERMI (1901–1954)

CONTENTS

Cover (#u76027114-3b7c-5f86-85e7-a80f4945c7cd)

Title Page (#u7eba74a2-d1cf-521b-a513-6b2ea6ea0103)

Copyright (#u158efb20-553f-5776-9481-35ca1269c899)

Dedication (#u2e77c2cb-ebb6-5013-8f63-b41485e9a9e1)

Epigraph (#u4b67afc7-001b-57f3-bad0-cf08753ba406)

Prologue (#u07176184-4c68-56cd-9607-96e563acd2a6)

Part I: Foreigners (#u8ea501ec-61b6-5db8-b892-d590e0121fa6)

Chapter 1: Gaijin (#u8c484e3f-f590-543c-aaae-301ff6cdd3fd)

Chapter 2: Baikonur (#u6a0201f1-c82d-51e2-bb56-ede9c7f931a1)

Chapter 3: Debates (#u0b881cf4-f9bf-5081-befc-dca94480ae66)

Chapter 4: Ellis Island (#ue988b8ef-8386-53a2-89a9-c5723a9c8d3d)

Chapter 5: Saddle Point (#ude65c374-e667-5db8-b6aa-6bced42812ae)

Chapter 6: Transmission (#u5cffacd1-2467-56a8-b426-449717f092fe)

Chapter 7: Reception (#u4a1f11a5-18f1-5d0c-8083-4f562c4d4488)

Part II: Travellers (#u4ff3960c-25c1-59e0-ba46-ea3eb8c8e93a)

Chapter 8: Ambassadors (#u1d57d477-fda5-5806-b878-2c612099c05c)

Chapter 9: Fusion Summer (#ud4aa78c2-4038-502b-afee-e77a58b9e73b)

Chapter 10: Travels (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: Anomalies (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: Sister Planet (#litres_trial_promo)