Aaron
Names: AaronBad News's interlocutorMr TelferCyrialsubject alpha's captorcreepy boyLennox McFosterthe MutineerLennoxLennox the Mutineer
First appears in Book 1: The Dreaming Void, chapter 2 (1)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Dreaming Void
- Ch 2Aaron has no memories of any life before today, yet is not troubled by it, and feels sure he will eventually solve the mystery of himself.
- Ch 2Aaron discovers he has Advancer heritage and lethal biononic field-function weaponry, plus hidden functions like ocular zoom and ancillary thought routines.
- Ch 2After Ethan's speech Aaron realizes he must find Inigo, and that this is why he is here.
- Ch 2Aaron feels emotionally flat and has no strong opinion on whether a Pilgrimage could be catastrophic.
- Ch 2Aaron has no memory of his identity, but is wealthy, with a coin and credit code backed by a Central Augusta Bank account, and is hunting Inigo.
- Ch 2Aaron is an unbeliever who plans to use Pilgrimage's need for ships as cover, and targets Corrie-Lyn as a route to Living Dream insiders.
- Ch 2Aaron has an elusive memory of riding a horned, horse-like creature across a sapphire-skied landscape, which he dismisses as a simulated drama.
- Ch 2He has spent three nights cultivating Corrie-Lyn in Makkathran2 under cover as a representative of FarFlight Charters, seeking her contacts.
- Ch 2He has biononic enhancements, combat routines and accelerants that give him inhuman speed, force-field combat and distortion pulses.
- Ch 2He has seen Inigo's dreams and knows the original Makkathran from them.
- Ch 2He kills Captain Manby and his two subordinates in a fight and tells Corrie-Lyn Ethan sent them to kill her.
- Ch 2Aaron hauls a trembling, near-shocked woman toward a descending taxi, ignoring her stumbling, and privately feels the evening has gone better than if he had planned it.
- Ch 6Aaron has had his full memory removed and does not know who he works for; software and directives drive his actions, including combat skills.
- Ch 6Aaron needs to find Inigo and believes Corrie-Lyn can help; he argues Living Dream is trying to kill her and only Inigo can stop it.
- Ch 6Aaron uses biononics and a u-shadow to bypass security, scan for hostiles, and stun people with a weapon enrichment in his left forearm.
- Ch 6Aaron deliberately lies and manipulates Corrie-Lyn, wanting her scared enough to commit to his mission but not so scared she panics.
- Ch 6Aaron has weapons-grade Higher biononics: force field, disruptor pulses, stun pulses and a u-shadow, letting him overpower city police easily.
- Ch 6Aaron stunned Yves to give him an alibi, then carried Corrie-Lyn out of the fane, which collapsed from damage Aaron caused.
- Ch 6Aaron suddenly remembered he owns a starship, the Artful Dodger, and its smartcore recognised his DNA and command authority.
- Ch 6Aaron has no record of Inigo's aunt and decides to go to Anagaska to find her or her children.
- Ch 6Aaron has a nightmare of faceless people fleeing in a domed hall, and believes it is a memory from his wiped previous life.
- Ch 6Aaron leaked a disturbing dream into the gaiafield; it showed him above terrified fleeing people, with a winged shadow he felt comfortable with.
- Ch 6Aaron has no memory of combat before his current incarnation, suggesting his memories were wiped.
- Ch 6Aaron is determined to locate Inigo and refuses Corrie-Lyn's offer to explore his dreams, insisting he is happy with what he is.
- Ch 8Aaron has combat biononics but says he is not Higher; he asks Paul for information and speaks respectfully to him.
- Ch 8Aaron's passive scan detects a ring of power clumps buried around the ranch perimeter, likely a defence system.
- Ch 8Aaron has highly placed contacts including inside the Protectorate, but does not know where his own data originates.
- Ch 8Aaron believes Inigo is not Higher and that human destiny is whatever people choose.
- Ch 8Aaron, posing as Mr Telfer with Corrie-Lyn as his partner, arrives at St Mary's Clinic on a pretext of wanting twins and breaks into the administration block, targeting the vault.
- Ch 8Aaron has biononics, a u-shadow and force-field abilities, hiding a bandolier of weapons beneath a fake overweight appearance, and enjoys the mission.
- Ch 8Aaron infiltrates the clinic to steal Inigo's memorycell, using energy-dumps, a jelly gun and hacking tendrils; he kills two security managers.
- Ch 8Aaron takes control of Viertz Accu's brain via neural tendrils, using her memories, codes and voice to calm the clinic's security and reach the vault.
- Ch 8Aaron is badly wounded in the vault fight: firewire tangles, microjanglers and nerve agent hit him, though he still escapes with the memorycell.
- Ch 8Aaron shoots Viertz through the head with an x-ray laser as a mercy, in case her memorycell was still recording.
- Ch 8Aaron uses niling-sponges to absorb police weapon fire to a preset limit, then reverses the effect, causing explosions that tumble the police capsules.
- Ch 10Telfer raided the clinic's vault with extremely advanced weapons biononics, killing both guards in under a minute; he appears Asian-like with grey eyes and a thirties appearance.
- Ch 10Telfer, alias Aaron, left with Corrie-Lyn aboard the Artful Dodger; Paula thinks he is using Corrie-Lyn as a pawn to reach Inigo.
- Ch 10Aaron was gravely wounded in a raid on Anagaska and spent days in his ship's medical chamber, rebuilt with cells containing his own DNA.
- Ch 10Aaron planned the raid, preloading the Artful Dodger's flightplan and options, and is annoyed that Corrie-Lyn was late for pickup.
- Ch 10Aaron plans to take Inigo's memorycell to the High Angel, hoping a Raiel can absorb the memories far faster than a human could.
- Ch 10Aaron has intuitive knowledge loaded into his subconscious that has so far proved correct, including that Qatux was the Raiel most likely to help.
- Ch 12Aaron is recovering a restored upper torso through exercise; his memory does not reach back past Ethan's appointment, and he has odd dreams of a childhood horse ride.
- Ch 12Aaron gained Qatux's help by implying he represented ANA:Governance, which he never confirmed.
- Ch 12Aaron secretly altered Corrie-Lyn's drink orders to halve their alcohol content, and has vague unexplained feelings of remembering the War.
- Ch 12Scans everyone at the base for biononics and finds none; he manipulates Corrie-Lyn and needs her functional.
- Ch 12Reasons that Inigo, being Higher, would use field scan to run the most successful recovery team, which is working at Olhava province.
- Ch 14Aaron is on a planet's surface, in a ground crawler; he wakes from a dream of martial practice and a house in a valley.
- Ch 14Aaron's dreams are eroding his composure; he fears his subconscious hides true memories, yet he likes his simple, unsentimental current personality.
- Ch 14Aaron feels certainty stir in his mind that he knows what to do once he finds Inigo, though he claims not to know whom he represents.
- Ch 14Aaron is a biononics-enhanced killer who has killed about twenty people while hunting for Inigo.
- Ch 14Aaron reacts impassively to the deaths at Kajaani, saying the victims will be re-lifed.
Book 2: The Temporal Void
- Ch 3Aaron is a biononic-enhanced operative who keeps secret his destination, known only in his subconscious, so he cannot be forced to reveal it.
- Ch 3Aaron has trusted Inigo and realizes too late he badly erred; he deploys a wing-shaped force field as the avalanche engulfs him.
- Ch 5Aaron climbs the glacier cliff in a storm on Hanko and angrily chases the ground crawler carrying Inigo and Corrie-Lyn.
- Ch 5Caught in a whiteout, Aaron hallucinates a white jungle and fires biononic energy at imagined enemies, seeing it as a choice to forget what he did.
- Ch 5Aaron loses the crawler's trail on the open glacier, as the trail is gone and the pair left over six hours earlier.
- Ch 5Aaron heads back toward Jajaani via the Olhava camp and broadcasts a distress signal, though he doubts he can escape before the planet implodes.
- Ch 5Aaron is jogging back toward Jajaani across a frozen dead planet, furious that Inigo manipulated him into trusting him through the gaiafield.
- Ch 5Aaron gives the false name Cyrial to the scout ship crew, taking it from Restoration staff he had interviewed at Jajaani.
- Ch 5Aaron powers up all his weapons inserts and adjusts his biononic energy currents for extreme combat before boarding the rescue ship.
- Ch 8Aaron is believed to have taken control of the navy scout ship Lindau on Hanko.
- Ch 8Aaron flies the Lindau at Mach twelve through Hanko's terminal storms, searching for something between the Asiatic glacier and the Olhava camp.
- Ch 8Aaron appears when a force-field-protected figure removes the rear of the stuck ground crawler's cabin, greeting Inigo and Corrie-Lyn cheerfully.
- Ch 11Aaron says he is neither good nor bad, just a man with a job he must complete, though he no longer knows what the job is.
- Ch 11Aaron is physically immensely strong and acts on instinct; he claims he will know the next step once the ship is repaired.
- Ch 11Aaron apparently killed the crew of the navy ship Lindau, leaving blood throughout the main cabin, and took the ship.
- Ch 11Aaron is holding Corrie-Lyn as leverage to guarantee Inigo's good behavior.
- Ch 11Aaron acts on implanted information from his employer; options are revealed to him gradually, and he deliberately knows little in advance in case he is captured.
- Ch 11Aaron learned from the captain's brain that Admiral Kazimir told the navy about him and Inigo, so he expects navy pursuit.
- Ch 11Aaron decides to take Inigo and Corrie-Lyn to the Spike, seven thousand light-years away, because the implanted guidance says Ozzie lives there.
- Ch 11Aaron treats Inigo as a package to deliver; Corrie-Lyn believes his conditioning is beginning to unravel because he shows he cares.
Book 3: The Evolutionary Void
- Ch 8Aaron suffers nightmares, apparently leaked from suppressed aspects of his mind, including a woman who says nobody leaves her and a memory of his mind being shredded.
- Ch 8Aaron refuses to connect the Lindau to the unisphere, fearing infiltration, so the corrupted culinary unit keeps producing bad food.
- Ch 8Aaron says that if Inigo were taken away from him, he would kill him.
- Ch 8Aaron captured Inigo within a couple of weeks of being assigned to him, after the Commonwealth had hunted for seventy years.
- Ch 10Aaron suffers nightly nightmares of a blood-soaked priestess who demands he not leave her; Corrie-Lyn shares them through her gaiamotes.
- Ch 10Aaron claims his ability is unimpaired, but he lapsed into reverie on watch; he insists he can hold together until reaching the Spike in two days.
- Ch 10Aaron urges Inigo and Corrie-Lyn to think about how to stop the Void, once Inigo and Ozzie meet.
- Ch 10Aaron is a conditioned agent who still believes in Inigo as a leader; he is traumatised by memories of a woman who tortured him.
- Ch 10Under the dream's emotional pressure Aaron cracks, threatens Inigo and Corrie-Lyn, then collapses into an emotionless minimum-function fallback mode.
- Ch 10Aaron's mission is to bring Inigo to Oswald Fernandez Isaacs, after which Inigo and Corrie-Lyn will get further instructions.
- Ch 10Aaron now acts as a cold, machinelike version of himself, lacking emotional thought routines, and uses lethal force to find Isaacs.
- Ch 10Aaron says emotion-based routines are corroded by the hostile environment of the Spike, so he cannot permit them.
- Ch 10Aaron knocks Inigo and Corrie-Lyn unconscious with neurosedative rounds so their thoughts cannot reveal their location through the telepathy effect.
- Ch 10Aaron promises Inigo he will protect Corrie-Lyn and will make Isaacs switch off the telepathy effect.
- Ch 12Aaron is a Commonwealth Navy-clad, formerly human operative who brought Inigo and Corrie-Lyn, unconscious, to Ozzie by a water column.
- Ch 12Aaron acts on orders from an unknown source to bring Ozzie and Inigo together; the further instructions activate only at a later stage.
- Ch 12Aaron has a minimal function mode, simple and machine-like, that keeps him operational after neural injury; the telepathy effect forced him into it.
- Ch 12Aaron expects he will have to ask Ozzie and Inigo to stop the Void's devourment phase.
- Ch 14Aaron, working for an unknown faction hostile to Pilgrimage, brought Inigo and Corrie-Lyn sedated to Ozzie's island home to link Inigo with Ozzie.
- Ch 14Aaron is described as trigger-happy and aggressive; he says he has no fun and is just doing a job.
- Ch 14Aaron's original goal was to take Inigo into the Void, establish a link with the Heart and open negotiations; he lacks a clear methodology and cannot improvise easily.
- Ch 14Aaron coerces Ozzie to come downstairs by threatening to 'get unpleasant', and has biononic defenses that can activate automatically.
- Ch 14Aaron is bound by rigid mental programming: his mission is to get Inigo physically into the Void, and he refuses to deviate from it.
- Ch 14Aaron says he will know what to do for the next stage once contact is made, and he refuses Ozzie's offer of neural unblocking.
- Ch 14Aaron asks whether the Spike could be moved until it is within range of the Void, and says Makkathran is where he must take Inigo.
- Ch 16Aaron is fixated on his mission to get the Dreamer into the Void and bristles at any suggestion of abandoning it.
- Ch 16Aaron hesitates and softens when he learns Oscar Monroe is coming, which Ozzie finds striking given Aaron's few memories.
- Ch 16Aaron suffers worsening nightmares of a female presence that follows him into waking; his biononics and tactical routines have been repeatedly failing.
- Ch 16The Knights Guardian identify Aaron as Lennox McFoster, the Mutineer, who defied the Cat at Pantar Cathedral; he has no memory of it.
- Ch 16Aaron's mission is to get Inigo into the Void; a coy-smiling woman haunts his memory and weakens his compulsion.
- Ch 16Aaron hides from the others that he sees a vision of a vast crystalline ceiling; he claims to remember nothing since his disappearance.
- Ch 16Aaron's mission is to take the Dreamer to Makkathran inside the Void, or at least establish contact with the Heart.
- Ch 16Aaron was never caught or tried as the Mutineer, and nobody knew what happened to him; his conditioning appears to be breaking down.
- Ch 16Oscar perceives Aaron as a human shell over something very odd, mimicking personality rather than having one.
- Ch 16Aaron says the Cat did to him what she is doing to Cheriton; he urges leaving and shoots Catriona's projector with a laser.
- Ch 18Aaron says they must reach Makkathran and claims no memory of anything, including Gore.
- Ch 18Aaron insists the Mellanie's Redemption go into the Void.
- Ch 18Aaron has lost the Knights Guardian's old traits and memories; the name Lennox means nothing to him, which he sees as good, and he feels like himself.
- Ch 18Aaron's shielded thoughts appear to others as anger and conflict with many contrary facets, yet he says he still functions.
- Ch 18Aaron stays awake with Araminta-two and Troblum for the rest of the flight to Querencia, while others go into suspension.
- Ch 20Aaron is breaking down under recovered memories, says he needs to be what he was granted in return for his new life, and welcomes death over doubt.
- Ch 20Aaron insists that the pilgrimage fleet is not part of the plan, but that Araminta is responsible for the Living Dream followers' lives.
- Ch 20Aaron's memories of the Cat are breaking through; he sleeps ever longer, wrestles nightmares, and looks beaten with bruised eyes and bleeding black fingernails.
- Ch 20Aaron tells Inigo they came to Makkathran so Inigo can bring the Waterwalker forth, since Inigo holds his true memory and need not reset the Void.
- Ch 20Aaron is a damaged agent whose mind was reconfigured; he is desperate to speak to the Void's controller and demands to be taken to the Heart.
- Ch 20Aaron is really Lennox, a founder of the Knights Guardian, whose personality was erased and patched after damage by the Cat.
- Ch 21Aaron's mind has shut down; Araminta brings him to the Silfen for real healing rather than technological memory edits.
Connections
- related toBad Newsshe approached and teased him
- enemy ofInigohunting him
- member ofFarFlight Chartersuses it as a cover identity
- enemy ofCorrie-Lyndeceptively befriends her for her contacts
- related toCorrie-Lynuses and protects her to find Inigo
- enemy ofCaptain Manby
- related toArtful Dodgerowner
- ally ofCorrie-Lynposing as a couple
- enemy ofViertz Accu
- enemy ofpolice
- related toInigocustodian delivering Inigo as a package
- related toLindauAaron commandeered the ship and is taking it to the Spike
- ally ofInigo
- family ofBruceclaimed son, as Lennox McFoster
- family ofSamanthaclaimed son, as Lennox McFoster
- enemy ofCatriona Saleebstood up to her at Pantar Cathedral
- enemy ofthe Cat
- member ofKnights Guardian
- related toGore BurnelliGore is Aaron's controller
- related toConservative Factionruns covert missions for it
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 2Aaron meets the mysterious woman
Aaron, with no memories, is approached by a woman who hints others like him were sent to watch events, then vanishes calling herself bad news.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Aaron arrives in Makkathran2
Aaron crosses the park to the modern city, checks into a penthouse at the Hotel Buckingham, and identifies Corrie-Lyn as his way in to Living Dream.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Aaron courts Corrie-Lyn
Aaron approaches Corrie-Lyn at the Rakas bar posing as a FarFlight Charters broker, then takes her to dinner, where she drunkenly breaks down over Inigo's leaving.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Assassination attempt on Corrie-Lyn
Captain Manby's squad ambushes Corrie-Lyn and Aaron; Aaron kills all three, then tells her Ethan wants her dead and offers protection.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Aaron drags the woman to the taxi
After she whispers 'Yes', Aaron pulls her, shaking and stumbling, toward a descending taxi, struggling not to smile at how well the evening has turned out for him.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Safe house and breakfast
After arriving in Riasi and hiding in a rented apartment, Aaron cooks a lavish breakfast and tells Corrie-Lyn he must find Inigo, saying Living Dream will keep trying to kill her. She declines for now.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Infiltration of the Daeas fane
Aaron and Corrie-Lyn enter the fane so she can speak privately with Yves. Aaron stuns a Cleric as hostiles gather outside and lifts descend. He finds Corrie-Lyn and Yves high on aerosols and stuns Yves.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Escape from the fane
Aaron stuns Yves, carries drugged Corrie-Lyn through police, collapsing the fane and the arcade, and floods the plaza with fountains. They flee via a utility tunnel and a stolen capsule.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Plan to go to Anagaska
Corrie-Lyn reveals Inigo was secretly Higher and often visited Anagaska; Aaron resolves to seek Inigo's aunt. He remembers his starship, the Artful Dodger, and they board it.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Aaron's nightmare
Aaron wakes from a dream of faceless people fleeing in a domed hall, sensing it is a surviving memory of his past life.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Corrie-Lyn confronts Aaron about his dream
Corrie-Lyn tells Aaron she read his leaked dream of fleeing people and a winged shadow, and urges him to explore it; he refuses and redirects to finding Inigo.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Visit to the Inigo museum in Kuhmo
Posing as an anthropologist, Aaron tours the shrine to Inigo and finds Inigo's official biography suspicious. He decides they must ask the Protectorate.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Aaron and Corrie-Lyn meet Paul Alkoff
Aaron and Corrie-Lyn fly to Paul Alkoff's desert ranch seeking information; Paul reluctantly receives them and declares his hatred of Higher culture.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Paul explains Inigo's origins
Paul tells Aaron how an angel infected Erik and Imelda, how Sabine's pregnancy led to Inigo, and how the Protectorate watched him for twenty-five years without finding biononics.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Aaron finds a lead on Inigo
Aaron deduces that Inigo's rejuvenation policy means a stored copy of his personality exists on Anagaska and plans to pursue it.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Aaron breaks into St Mary's Clinic
Aaron and Corrie-Lyn arrive under cover as a couple. He slips away, triggers diversions, glides into the administration block and fights through toward the vault.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Taking the clinic control centre
Aaron breaks into the control centre, kills one security manager and overloads another, Viertz Accu, then takes over her brain to disable and deceive the clinic's security.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Vault fight and theft
Aaron blinds the smartcore, opens the vault, and fights two hidden guards, getting severely wounded, but kills them and takes Inigo's memorycell.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Escape and police clash
Corrie-Lyn delays the capsule, so Aaron escapes the roof wounded; he destroys the police capsules' stability with niling-sponge explosions but is thrown to the ground.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Paula briefs Justine
Paula tells Justine the raid was Faction-organized, identifies Corrie-Lyn and Aaron/Telfer fleeing on the Artful Dodger, and plans to stay visible while someone unexpected finds the Second Dreamer.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Aaron wakes after the raid
Aaron recovers from severe wounds in the Artful Dodger's medical chamber; Corrie-Lyn explains the escape from Anagaska, and they confirm they still have the memorycell.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Aaron seeks the Raiel's help
Aaron and Corrie-Lyn dock the Artful Dodger at High Angel and are teleported to Qatux. Aaron asks him to absorb Inigo's memorycell to find Inigo and stop the Pilgrimage; Qatux agrees.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Qatux names Hanko
After reviewing Inigo's memories, Qatux tells Aaron and Corrie-Lyn that Inigo has likely gone to Hanko. Aaron decides to go there.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Paula questions Qatux
Paula Myo visits Qatux, learns Aaron and Corrie-Lyn were there, and that Qatux reviewed Inigo's memories and guessed Hanko.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Aaron and Corrie-Lyn arrive on Hanko
The Artful Dodger descends to Kajaani. Corrie-Lyn tells the Restoration team a tale of seeking a lost lover 'Yigo' to find Inigo, and Purillar offers to introduce them to the staff.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Tour of the Restoration base
Purillar shows Aaron and Corrie-Lyn the labs and the recovered corpse of Aeva Sondlin, explaining how Hanko's lost are found and restored.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Crawler borrowed to hunt Inigo
Corrie-Lyn pleads and Purillar grants a ground crawler; Aaron finds Olhava province's team best, and they plan to leave in the morning.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Aaron and Corrie-Lyn find Inigo
At the Olhava dig, Aaron and Corrie-Lyn find Inigo disguised as Earl. Corrie-Lyn weeps and kisses him; Inigo refuses to return.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Destruction of Kajaani
An unidentified ship destroys the base's force field with a gamma-ray laser, then kills the Artful Dodger and ruins Kajaani with a Hawking m-sink, which will consume Hanko.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Inigo betrays Aaron
At a vast fissure on Hanko, Inigo blasts the ice with a disrupter pulse, splitting the prominence Aaron stands on; Aaron falls down the cliff in an avalanche.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Aaron loses the trail in the whiteout
Aaron suffers a whiteout hallucination, wrecks the ice, finds the crawler tracks erased, and turns toward Jajaani.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Lindau contacts Aaron
While heading to Jajaani, Aaron receives a hail from the navy scout ship Lindau on the emergency band.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Aaron boards the scout ship
Posing as a survivor named Cyrial, Aaron is picked up in a storm by a scout ship crew, while secretly preparing his weapons and biononics for combat.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Lindau lost; Yangtze dispatched
Kazimir reports communications with the Lindau lost, possibly taken by Aaron. He tracks it still on Hanko and sends the River-class Yangtze.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Aaron searches Hanko in the storm
Aaron pilots the Lindau at extreme speed and gee-forces through Hanko's terminal storms, sweeping strips of terrain for something, and the ship suffers serious damage.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Aaron intercepts Inigo and Corrie-Lyn
As Corrie-Lyn begs Inigo for his final dream, the storm halts and the crawler's rear is destroyed by a green flash; Aaron appears inside a force field.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Escape from Hanko aboard the Lindau
Aaron gets Corrie-Lyn and Inigo aboard the damaged Lindau, which launches off Hanko. They discover the crew dead, Corrie-Lyn is treated, and Aaron admits he does not know where to go next.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Hanko destroyed
From the Lindau, they watch the Hawking m-sink consume Hanko's core until the planet explodes.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Aaron chooses the Spike
Aaron decides the Lindau cannot risk Pulap and reveals that his implanted options point to the Spike, where Ozzie lives.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Breakfast clash aboard the Lindau
After a nightmare, Aaron breakfasts with captives Inigo and Corrie-Lyn, argues with Corrie-Lyn, and tells Inigo he'd kill him if he were taken.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Aaron's nightmare shared
Corrie-Lyn is woken by Aaron's tormented memories via his gaiamotes. At breakfast she confronts him; he denies impairment while Inigo and she urge him to prepare for a breakdown.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Aaron breaks down
Under the amplified emotions of Ozzie's dream, Aaron blasts open the cabin door and threatens Inigo and Corrie-Lyn. Inigo persuades him the trauma is internal, and Aaron falls into an emotionless fallback mode.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Arrival at the Spike
The Lindau arrives, receives docking permission from the Spike's AI, and lands on a tube pad. Aaron decides to seek Isaacs in the largest human settlement.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Massacre in Octoron plaza
Aaron questions citizens for Isaacs's location, kills one, tortures another and fires on the plaza, killing several and wounding others, ignoring Inigo's pleas to let him talk.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Chikoya attack
Armored Chikoya teleport in demanding Inigo; Aaron fights them, retreats through buildings, then sedates Inigo and Corrie-Lyn to hide them from telepathic tracking.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Meeting with Aaron
Guided by a hijacked capsule to a remote spot by a water column, Ozzie meets Aaron, who holds unconscious Inigo and Corrie-Lyn. Under threat against Corrie-Lyn, Ozzie switches off mindspace.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Aaron delivers Inigo to Ozzie
Aaron brings sedated Inigo and Corrie-Lyn to Ozzie's island house, where Ozzie is rude. Inigo wakes, and Aaron says he will give his plan when Ozzie comes down.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Ozzie confronted
Aaron forces a reluctant Ozzie to meet Inigo; Ozzie gives them access to his house net and says to talk in the morning.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Breakfast strategy talk
Over breakfast they discuss Ilanthe, Ozzie's discarded memory copy, and the limits of the gaiafield and mindspace. Ozzie suggests Inigo or a Skylord, or Gore, as ways to reach the Void.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Debate on reaching the Heart
The group discusses how to contact the Heart without an ultradrive ship. Aaron proposes moving the Spike, which Ozzie flatly refuses, questioning Aaron's programming.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Inigo discusses the Last Dream
After Inigo shares the Last Dream, Corrie-Lyn storms out, Ozzie and Inigo interpret it as the Void's utopia ending in stagnation, and she later returns accepting it.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Qatux contacts Ozzie
Forced by Aaron, Ozzie calls the High Angel; Qatux cannot get them into the Void but says someone important, escorted by Oscar Monroe, will arrive in three days.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Aaron recognized as the Mutineer
When Oscar's party arrives at Ozzie's house, Tomansio recognizes Aaron as Lennox McFoster, the Mutineer who defied the Cat, shocking Aaron.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Troblum offers wormhole transport
Troblum reveals his ship's Anomine-derived novabomb-powered wormhole engine that could reach the galactic core ahead of the Pilgrimage fleet. The group agrees to go, with extra suspension chambers being built for Void time.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Chikoya attack Ozzie's house
Forty armored Chikoya teleport in, surrounding the house; Ozzie vanishes, and Oscar and the Knights Guardian fight them back while Aaron guards the Dreamers.
- Book 3 · Ch 16The Cat tortures Cheriton by gifting
Cheriton contacts the team via gaiafield. The Cat, having mutilated him, rewrites his memories to torment him. The team flees FTL as he is forced to relive shooting his family.
- Book 3 · Ch 18The Cat ambushes Mellanie's Redemption
The Cat catches Mellanie's Redemption as Troblum prepares the FTL device. Paula intervenes, the ship flees, then launches the device into the star while Paula draws the Cat away.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Wormhole crossing
The planetary FTL device opens a wormhole through the star, and the Mellanie's Redemption crosses 28,000 light-years to emerge near the Void.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Passage into the Void
The Raiel let Mellanie's Redemption pass. The Skylord opens the boundary, pulls the ship in, and speeds it toward Querencia, three light-months away.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Arrival at Makkathran
After Oscar suffers Aaron's nightmare, the crew lands near the Silverbird; Justine greets them, and Aaron says Inigo must bring forth the Waterwalker.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Edeard meets Inigo and learns the truth
Edeard is reunited with Inigo, who explains he was brought from the Void's memory, that his life is past, all humans have left, and the outside universe threatens the Void.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Homecomings after the Void's elevation
Oscar, Justine, Araminta and the Delivery Man return to loved ones; Araminta brings Aaron to the Silfen, where she meets Mellanie.