Chapter Summaries (Dregs of Empire)
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution
- Lorian Aristedes
- Tollak (prison guard)
- Prem (prison guard>
- Lorian Aristedes
- Duke
- Bhaskar
- Lorian Aristedes
- Gowan
- Hari
- Urgo
- Duke
- Daud
Locations
Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Hightower
Characters
Plot Summary
Four guards beat Lorian Aristedes in a white-walled room of the hightower above Belusha, which broke at least one of Lorian's ribs. Reeling from the pain, Lorian recalled his sentencing on the part of William Caesar for high treason for helping Hadrian Marlowe escape from the brig aboard the Tempest with the help of Bassander Lin and the Prince of Jadd Kaim du Otranto.
"“How do you answer these charges?” Caesar himself had asked the question, seated on the camp stool they had set out for his makeshift throne.
Lorian had answered with his customary lip. “Unrepentantly, Honorable Caesar.”
That had sealed his fate.
On a floating chair passing from medica to his cell, Lorian looked out on the planet Belusha more than a mile below. The frigid surface of the planet was dotted by oil rig towers in a frozen plain with ice-crowened mountains in the middle distance. In the sky, a lattice work of mirrors reflected the light from a sun onto the surface of Belusha, where he could barley make out the prison camp of Downwell, his final destination.
Chapter 2: The DukeLocations
Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > DownwellCharacters
Plot Summary
A boot belonging to a dark-faced man named Duke jabbed at Lorian's broken ribs, jolting him awake the next morning. Duke helped Lorian get up and confirmed that Lorian has two broken ribs on his left side. Lorian shared his history as Hadrian Marlowe's commander, but was met with a shake of the head and no recognition of the Hadrian's name from Duke.
“Call me Lorian,” he said. “I was a commander in the Imperial Red Company, under Hadrian Marlowe himself.”Attempting to get a sense of time, Lorian asked what year it is only to learn that prisoners are never told the year, although Duke did confirm that William Caesar XXIII of the House of Avent was still emperor. Duke then led Lorian down some white-walled halls to a locker room with thermal suits colored prisoner scarlet, which he helped Lorian don. Duke taught Lorian how to use the rebreather system as he told him of his prison assignment in the motor pool.
Duke only blinked at him.
“The Hero of Aptucca?”
The other man shook his head. “We don’t get word from outside.”
“The Halfmortal?”
Nothing.
The two exited the locker room onto the surface of the planet, into the average low temperatures of -16 centigrade, where Lorian remarked again on the mirrors redirecting sunlight to the surface, the so-called Emperor's Eyes. His gaze then turned on the orbital lift tower stretching from the surface into the upper atmosphere where he had been the prior day in medica. Lorian dreamed of climbing its nanocarbon cables hand-over-hand to escape the prison planet, a feat he knows is impossible.
In the motor pool, Duke introduces Lorian to Bhaskar, a mechanic with a grizzled beard. Bhaskar asks Lorian why he is on Belusha, perking up the heads and ears of three others in the motor pool. Lorian tells him "High treason," which elicits laughter from Bhaskar and the rest of the motor pool. Lorian presses in, saying he was the tactical officer aboard the Tamerlane under Captain Otavia Corvo and Commandant Lord Hadrian Marlowe, whom the motor pool mechanics call a myth and propoganda. A klaxon wails signaling a shift change, and Bhaskar and his pod leave for meal time.
Chapter 3: A Man's World
Locations
Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > DownwellCharacters
Plot Summary
Lorian continued his work in the motor pool and recalled Duke telling a story of a group of prisoners from 2,000 shifts (approximated to be 10 years) ago who found weapons on their salvage run. They staged an insurrection of Perigee camp, only to be carpet bombed by the guards. Lorian started a conversation about the possibility of escape to which all the motor pool workers scoff.
Gowan and Hari, two of the motor pool workers, struck up a conversation about Outborn, prisoners who had left the camps to live in the barren frozen wilds of Belusha. Hari exclaims that Duke believes they are real, but the others are non-plussed. Diggin in his heels, Hari asks if the others heard about an attack on Farside that killed more than 30 Martians and took all the women from the camp. Gowan believes the story to be a falsehood. Hari asks Lorian of his opinion, to which Lorian said he's never seen them.
Tensions rise among the crew as insults fly. Hari threw a spanner that missed Lorian's head, and Hari references Valka as an extrasolarian machine-witch. Lorian corrects him that she was Tavrosi, which sends Hari into another disparaging insult about Valka.
“Tavrosi?” Hari spat. “That’s twice as bad. Always wondered why His Radiance didn’t burn those fuckers off the map. Can’t imagine being so desperate for ass I’d fuck a machine!”
Lorian launched a spanner hitting Hari in the face, rising tensions further. Hari says he'll kill Lorian just before Duke steps in to end the fight between the two of them. Duke tells them he'll string them up naked in the cold if they don't stop their fighting while on the clock.
The next day, Lorian volunteered to take Hari's clean-up of the shop to smooth things over. On a later shift, Daud requests that Lorian repair his crawler by the next day, a timeline Duke tells him is too ambitious. Daud tells him to take it up with Damian, and he and his crew leave. Duke rallies the team for double-time repairs and tells them to organize who is getting food for the long night ahead. Chapter 4: The ParaCoita
Locations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Airspace en route to ArtemiaPlot Summary
Chapter 5: The Way of ThingsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Shuttle Crash Site in the Valley of the Redtine MountainsPlot Summary
Chapter 6: The TraitorsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperPlot Summary
Chapter 7: FarsideLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain ChurchSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Rectory
Plot Summary
Chapter 8: Outborn and MisbornLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectoryPlot Summary
Chapter 9: A FriendLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectorySpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Plot Summary
Chapter 10: Of VulturesLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectorySpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Yard
Plot Summary
Chapter 11: The ColdLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church YardSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Catacombs
Plot Summary
Chapter 12: Princess of ThievesLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Plot Summary
Chapter 13: The SubterraneLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain ChurchSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper
Plot Summary
Chapter 14: Strategy and TacticsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Yard
Plot Summary
Chapter 15: The Dregs of EmpireLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin StarshipPlot Summary
Chapter 16: Knocking on Heaven's DoorLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin StarshipPlot Summary
Chapter 17: Tower of the GodsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper Chapter 18: To Crack the SkyLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperDramatis Personae:
Lexicon: A Note on Translation