Of the City of the Saved... (novel)

Of the City of the Saved, of its diverse citizenry and of its sundry divinities, with a disquisition on the protocols of history, most commonly called Of the City of the Saved..., was the third novel in the Faction Paradox series. It expanded upon concepts introduced in The Book of the War and featured Laura Tobin, the original version of the Eighth Doctor's companion Compassion.

Publisher's summary
For Humanity, the War is over...

We all remember Resurrection Day. Even now, three centuries later, we cannot forget that awakening: our bewilderment, our terror and our joy. Each of us had experienced death, imagining ourselves bound for oblivion, Heaven or Nirvana, according to taste. Instead, we found, each member of the many human species — from tool-wielding australopithecines to posthuman philosopher-gods — had been harvested, gathered here by the Founders’ unfathomable technologies.

Reborn in our countless immortal bodies, we were given the freedom of the City of the Saved. A single conurbation as broad as a spiral galaxy, she has been our sanctuary from the ravages of the War. That monstrous conflict between inhuman cultures cannot touch us here: we live our afterlives beyond the end of time, in perfect safety.

We may be certain, therefore, that these rumours of a murder (the brutal stabbing of a City Councillor, no less!) are nothing more than lurid fabrications. The supposition that the murder weapon is missing, or that it could have been — as hysterical conjecture has claimed — a "potent weapon", capable of injuring a Citizen within the haven of the City, is equally absurd. The idea that a guerrilla war has already begun in one of our less harmonious enclaves need not be dignified with refutation.

Please go about your business, Citizens, as normal. We are perfectly safe, here in the City. Humanity has never been safer.

''Of the City of the Saved... is not a novel of violence and political intrigue, set against the backdrop of humanity’s last resting-place. There is no evidence that it is the second in the series of original Faction Paradox novels.''

Note
A note is found for Laura Tobin on Resurrection Day from a friend who claims to have reconstituted her entire body, mind and soul, down to its finest details. It suggests to her that she pursue a new career in the City of the Saved, as a private investigator.

Voces Populi
A variety of comments are made, snippets of conversation are heard, some people talking about how they miss the stars and how the city exists in a massive dome, others how the architecture is hopelessly derivative of the prior universe, another talking about the note he found when he was resurrected, various religious ideas, racism is not extinguished in this new world, lectures in a university, and the idea that there are one hundred undecillion stories in the city, if each person only has one.

Book One
A parade of Romans proceeds through the Romuline District, past the Uptime Gate leading back from the city into the universe before, visitors stopping to watch as they honor Civitata, the goddess of the city, and the guests of honor, Scipio Africanus and Gaius Ignotus, the grandson of Cassius. A horse gets loose, and takes its rider, a small child, under the hoof of a rhinoceros like creature before someone pulls them out from under its hooves, unharmed. Moving into the arena, Urbanus Ignotus and his great grandfather, Lucius Cassius Ignotus watch a fight below between cloned humans and constructs, as Cassius remarks to Urbanus, one of his many relatives, that since he's heard that Urbanus has some skill at business, he's being sent to Kempes District to represent the interests of the Ignotian family in a business development taking place there.

Laura Tobin sulked around her Paynesdown office as Rick Kithred enters, telling her that someone is out back, suggesting it might be the antichrist. Rick rambles about how he's been getting information from the creator of the universe they inhabit, and how they created an entity identical to itself in every way, but now they're at war, and have taken incarnate forms, though things have become messy in the communication. As he says this, half listening, Tobin yanks the door open to find a figure in a dark cloak, a tricorn hat and antlers. Rick immediately identifies him as Godfather Avatar, and while Tobin orders him out, he offers her a job, telling her about a citizen of the City who has died within it, Councillor Ved Mostyn. He leaves his number, in case she changes her mind.

Julian White Mammoth Tusk, shaking off a hangover, begins to pull himself together, getting ready for his work for Councillor Mesh Cos, when members of the Great Detective Agency called him, stating they had a sighting of Councillor Cos' daughter, Lon Shel. However, also noting that Julian and Lon used to be romantically involved, they declined to provide further comment without payment from the Councillor, believing Julian to be acting alone. Julian traipsed over to the council house to find quite a commotion, before running into Mesh Cos, who informs him that, yes, Lon Shel has been sighted in the Hensile District, but she has to let him go as her researcher, before telling him that there's something else he can do for her.

Urbanus, as a young scion of house Ignotus, was a priest of Neptunus and Dis Pater, and so gave a brief prayer to each, before traveling to the temple of Civitata and asking the priests for a sacrifice for his journey. After the pig finished squealing, his old tutor, the hermaphrodite slave Tiresias caught up with him, and informed him that he would be accompanying him on his journey. The two traveled in a tube, as Tiresias explained to Urbanus how some of the teachings he had grown up on were foisted upon him by his great-grandfather, how the city was both a stranger place than he expected, and that the influence of the Romuline District was less than he might have expected.

Meanwhile, back in the Romuline District, the slave Dedalus woke up and began to yell at his fellow slaves, demanding to know where Tiresias was. Bloody man drugged him. Dedalus checked the time and roared, noting that he was supposed to be taking Urbanus to Kempes. The slaves laughed at him for letting Tiresias drug him.

Tobin rode a tube out of Paynesdown, on her way to her cover story as Councillor Mesh's new researcher, having bought a datafetch with her first payment for the job. The fetch quickly brought her up to speed on the case, such as the biodata analysis showing that it's most definitely a real person dead, and the Councillor was a pseudo masochist, enjoying faking pain being inflicted on himself. Tobin joined a meeting between Councillors Ignotus, who represents the Romuline District, a republic that has declared all former Emperors traitors to Rome that should be tried, and Cos, discussing the Manfolk, who are attempting to reconcile with the rest of the city, disagreeing on the issue. Tobin came to the conclusion quite quickly as the meeting progressed that Ignotus also was aware of Mostyn's death. Tobin then retired for lunch, where her datafetch told her that the security feeds at the restaurant had been fed a false image, and, while relaying alibis for various Councillors, also mentioned the rumor that her predecessor, the Neanderthal, had been fired under pretext. Tobin suspected that this was done to lure other groups to place people to fill the position, and had no qualms with it, before finishing her meal and heading to inquire about her attempts to contact Councillor Allisheer St Marx. St Marx's husband, Professor Anthony Fisher, suggested that if the matter was urgent it could be best handled at the reception St Marx was hosting the next evening, and he had no idea where she currently was, as her current Mayoral campaign was taking up quite a lot of time, let alone without Mostyn, a close ally getting himself killed. Tobin retired to sit in on a conversation between Mesh Cos and a delegation from a female faction of Manfolk, who attempt to convince her that they have the men under control, before departing for her apartments as a researcher.

Julian moved from hyperspace jump to hyperspace jump in RealSpace on assignment from Mesh Cos, headed towards the lost planet of Erath. He reaches it, and deploys probes down to the surface, which are promptly destroyed by the planet's defenses. Frustrated, he pulls out the code and frequency given to him by Mesh Cos and transmits down to the planet.

Alisheer St Marx met with a houseworlder named Handramit, welcoming him as a visiting researcher.

Tobin enters her apartment to find Godfather Avatar inside. Frustrated with his trespassing, she tells him her current theories when he asks for an update on her progress, discussing the close political relationship between Mostyn and St Marx, along with the lack of information from Mostyn prior to the city, and coming to the conclusion that he was a houseworld agent disguised through biodata technology as a human. Avatar laughed, explaining that Mostyn was a member of the Faction, and that he and St Marx were romantically involved. Enraged and embarrassed, Tobin ordered him out of her apartment. Her wallscreen flickered at an incoming call from Compassion III, who informed Tobin that people had been stalking her, believing that they were attempting to get to Tobin through her. Tobin, recognizing that her later iterations were the closest thing she had to a family, stated that she'd be over in a few hours to see what was going on. She walked out and thugs jumped her, shooting bullets. As someone got caught in the crossfire, Tobin quickly realized that the assailants had potent weapons

Urbanus, now in Kempes, records a message to send back to his great grandfather. He explains that he believes he has found what he has been sent to find, when he was in a tavern he observed a barfight between two individuals and one of them was actually harmed. Having been around the fights so long, he could tell that these were not automata, and they didn't seem to be outsiders. He concluded that since they couldn't possibly be citizens someone has figured out how to create vulnerable homunculi. He then recommends that the family attempt to buy out the technology as soon as possible. Back in his boarding house, the landlady brings him a letter from Tiresias.

Tiresias, or Keth Marrane, as he began once more to think of himself, walked towards the nearby district of Manfold, contemplating whether his people would have him back. Walking into the district, Marrane noticed something had was very off. It normally took quite a lot to scare the manfolk, but this area of the district was largely deserted, people darting around, cars driving solo. This terrified Marrane.

Elsewhere in Manfold, a minor war was going on. A group of college students had come under attack from unknown forces, some of them inexplicably being wounded, and one even dying. A counter offensive begins to be launched by Melicia Clutterbuck, a professor at the university and her students.

Mesh Cos remembers the end of humanity. How the last human race predicted their destruction at the hands of the Great Houses, and, fearful for the entire history of humanity being retro-annulled. So the last generation of humanity poured their collective genius into creating a final memorial to remember humanity. And then Cos stowed away on a timeship and stole the knowledge from the houseworld needed to finish the project, but not before alerting a member of House Mirraflex. In the end they created the Universal Machine, all human tools in one, as the House weaponry descended. And it spoke. "Mesh Cos, I will remember you."

Cousin Porsena realizes that he's dead, but hears a voice, taunting him, torturing him.

Urbanus stamped towards Manfold, having read the note from Tiresias which stated he was returning home and immediately interpreting it as a scheme by unknown actors to kidnap his tutor. However, as he enters the district, he is grabbed by some Manfolk and is kidnapped, put in chains, and treated to harsh conditions, for the first time in his life feeling real pain.

Across the city an infection spreads. Wherever it goes objects and people that are touched become those of the invader. Potent weapons move throughout the city bit by bit.

Book Two
Julian White Mammoth Tusk's ship goes dead, diving to the planet. When he comes to, a robot guides him underground to a vast cavern with more robots scurrying around and a giant wall of valves, wires and sockets which he approaches, miles in ever dimension. The wall introduces itself to Julian as the Universal Machine, or UniMac. Julian walks with UniMac, now in the form of an artificial humanoid, and discusses life in the City. While he personally is content, UniMac does point out that many find City life to be dull or flawed in some way. They come to a vast obelisk that resembles the Uptime Gate, as UniMac explains that Cos has sent many colonists to him looking for something different. This is the Downtime Gate. It opens to the next universe.

Mesh Cos remembers her resurrection. As she awoke, a battle-drone of time long past stood over her and told her to be not afraid. In the fading light of humanity, the drone explained, the Universal Machine had wept, and attempted to bring back those who had died but could not. Time passed, and instead the Machine instead decided to reach out and bring back other artificial minds, reaching through time with the gifts that Cos had stolen from the homeworld. Through trial and error, this began to happen, creating a community of machine ancestors. Until one day, the Machine reached out to a mind that could tell it was being observed. Though reticent at first, the two worked out a covenant, creating the City of the Saved, an anthology of all human lives, just as the Machine was all machine life. Thanks to these two gods in machine form, humanity would be given a second, eternal, chance.

Urbanus sat in a cell with three other captured city born, two wounded students, one dead. Soon, the guard came to find him, under a name he had given them, Stupidus Titus, and took him to see Gnas Gortine. An amiable man, slightly smaller than other manfolk, the two chatted about their situation, and about how Gnas intended to make the City listen thanks to the hostages. During the conversation, Gnas let slip a few tidbits of information that Urbanus reacted to, and Gnas pointed out how unlikely it was for his cover story to be true given his reactions. Urbanus admits to his deception, and Gnas is delighted, before pontificating on his own historical accomplishments, something Urbanus finds strange, since he strongly suspected that Gnas was a remake. Upon asking him, Gnas admitted this, and even stated that there never was a historical Gnas, the tale was simply made up, and so Gnas was created to be a revolutionary by one faction in Manfold. Urbanus is returned to his cell, and gunfire starts outside. A group from outside, lead by Clutterbuck, spirits them away quickly as they blow away the cell wall. Gnas leaps after them but is unable to keep up.

Tobin tumbled into an empty tube tunnel, diving around until she was able to close the distance on one of the thugs without them realizing it. His companion shoots him in the confusion, wounding him but he flees, dropping his gun, and she dispatches the remaining assailant with the potent weapon of the first. Wincing, she looks down to see that she's been grazed by a bullet, and limps home for the night.

Little Brother Edward reflects on his early life in the city. On how he was created by a rich woman to be her plaything, and how when his life was found to be a lie he found his way to Faction Paradox, as the thoughts in his head fractured, spun against each other, as he lay weeping. He remembers how he traveled out into the universe to stop her parents from meeting, to erase her from existence, but she still lived as he returned, even though her parents did not know her, and the Faction now wanted him. Struggling, with reverence, he donned the robe of Godfather Avatar.

Kyme Janute, the ambassador from Manfold, stamped through the council house, talking to an image of Alisheer St Marx about how she needed to return because things were going south in Manfold. St Marx agreed, noting that Marrane wouldn't have deserted his post had he not been worried about what was going to happen. Jamute then walks into her chambers to find Councillor Cos rummaging through her things, before telling her that they need to talk, and holding up a dagger that she's found.

Porsena sat in half darkness, bound and gagged, as three men came into the room. Slowly, with lack of practice, and with pain, he set his shadow free, which made decently quick work of the three, before freeing him, and possessing one of the others. Using this, he propped himself up and began to leave down a dingy industrial corridor.

Tobin visits Councillor Cos' apartment in the middle of the night, and Cos immediately welcomes her in, before asking if Tobin has found what she's looking for, and if this is about Mostyn. As Tobin admits this, Cos asks if she'll need a new researcher once again. Tobin goes on to explain that she thinks that St Marx did end up stabbing Mostyn, but didn't intend to kill him, the real murderer was whoever placed the potent knife in his things. And since no potent weapon was found among his possessions, someone early to the scene with motive to remove it must have taken it, and suggests that Cos might have motive to remove it that isn't simply that she's guilty. Cos sighs, stands, and hands her a knife, suggesting it might help with her inquiries.

UniMac explains to Julian that now that he's been brought a dagger in a package from Cos, that he's been able to focus more on a problem he has. One of the colonists from the Downtime Gate has come back into the city, deciding that she wanted out. UniMac allowed this, but apparently something came riding in her memories, in her head, when she did, and has begun to corrupt the operating system of the City. He's figured out, thanks to the dagger, that she's likely in Manfold, and has determined that Manfold is collapsing. During this conversation, Julian realizes that the person is Lon Shel, and that's why Mesh Cos was never worried about her, and becomes worried that he needs to save her.

Porsena limped through the factory, before finding below him the large work-floor. Dilapidated machines were in service, workmen using them to make a human. Porsena thought back, and recalled dimly that he had been made in the same way. His shadow gestured to him, pointed towards a nearby room, and he moved in, meeting Lon Shel. She explains to him that, no, this isn't hell, it's Manfold, and she's been killed twice already, but is unable to escape from her current confines. If he can get out and tell her mother what's going on, she'll know what to do. Porsena staggers out of the door.

Clutterbuck explains to Urbanus that his family has been made aware of his safety and expects him to return, but Urbanus wishes to stay, to look for Tiresias. After he's been described to her, she tells Urbanus that Tiresias' real name is Keth Marrane, he was part of the rescue team, and was shot by Gnas. He's dead. Clutterbuck explains the history of the situation, female Manfolk getting pregnant, and then other Manfolk undergoing hermapause, there seems to be an area of Manfold where the City's protocols were disabled, and the situation slowly spiraled out of control. The group decides to pilot an armored vehicle into the Epicenter to investigate the rumors of the dead returning to life, and Urbanus insists on coming along.

Compassion III sits in her flat in the Teletopia District as two thugs come to see her. She threatens them, bluffing that she too is a timeship, before grabbing one of their weapons and shooting one. She drops 50 feet from her flat to the ground and starts to run upon hitting the ground. She heads to a producer she knows and informs her of her situation. When he expresses his skepticism that he has any reason to help her, she reveals that she's aware he's a member of the Rump Parliament and offers to defect.

Tobin talks to Anthony Fisher, suggesting that he was the one who placed the dagger in Mostyn's bedchamber, intending for St Marx to use it and kill Mostyn, but during the discussion it becomes painfully clear that he was unaware that his wife was having an affair becoming quite distressed at the thought. After leaving the tube station on her way back to the Council House, Godfather Avatar steps in front of her, asking how her work is proceeding. She explains her believe that neither Cos nor Fisher is guilty, but then also threatens Avatar, convinced that he's not real, merely a mask put on by the Faction to scare the residents of the City into compliance. Avatar laughs, admitting that he's a Loa, and so while he is indeed a mask worn by various individuals at various times, that doesn't make him any less real, just as someone behind him shot him in the back of the spine. Seven thugs this time picked up Tobin, telling her that their boss wants to talk to her, before machine gun fire echoed throughout the plaza, as a hundred men in bronze and leather marched in, with Cassius Ignotus at their helm. Ignotus explains that Manfold has demanded to permanently secede from the city and he's been arming his legion for an incursion. Tobin explains her intent to head towards St Marx's reception for Professor Handramit, and Ignotus insists on accompanying her.

Porsena ran through the factory, or, rather, limped quickly, until he slammed into a massive figure, guards behind him shooting him as he stopped. His shadow pulls out a massive broadsword and exhumes Porsena's, before the figure kills Porsena, telling him that he can't escape.

Gnas set up a wormhole generator and a host of annihilation bombs. While the navigation system is broken, the weapons should be potent, so he intends to explode them somewhere and return to the Epicenter in death. He just needs to figure out where is most damaging to the City.

Book Three
To be added

Characters

 * Compassion
 * Laura Tobin
 * Invincible Man
 * Serendipity
 * Scipio Africanus
 * Gaius Ignotis
 * Philip K. Dick
 * Gally Redcross
 * Lief
 * Catriona
 * Krish
 * Godfather Avatar
 * Julian White Mammoth Tusk
 * Mesh Cos
 * Sherlock Holmes
 * Urbanus Ignotus
 * Lucius Cassius Ignotus
 * Handramit
 * Big Finnish Benny
 * Porsena
 * Melicia Clutterbuck
 * Self
 * Jezebel
 * Lo
 * Vittoria Cellini
 * Emblem Matchmark
 * Charles Dodgson
 * Konrad Lorenz
 * Krisztina-Judit Németh

Continuity

 * Laura Tobin previously appeared in PROSE: Interference - Book One and Alison Tobin previously appeared in PROSE: Ship Of Fools.
 * Laura occasionally recalls her previous interactions with Faction Paradox and her life on Anathema. (PROSE: Interference)
 * Laura has been told that the final remembrance of herself, Compassion V, was kidnapped by the Great Houses (PROSE: Interference, The Blue Angel et al) and transformed into a timeship. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon et al) Laura notes that Compassion probably had an issue with the violation of privacy. (PROSE: The Fall of Yquatine)
 * Siloportem, the Thirteen-Day Republic, the Timebeast Assault, and House Mirraflex are mentioned. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
 * Various "corporate-cult" cliques of the 20th and early 21st centuries were headed by individuals wearing Avatar's distinctive antlered bone-mask. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go)
 * The Universal Machine was nearly manifested on 21st century Earth. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go)
 * Machines among the Universal Machine's resurrected human technology include "archaic wooden-looking automata with mask-faces" (AUDIO: In the Year of the Cat, TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) and a "locomoting geodesic spheroid with integrated flame-throwing device". (TV: The Chase)
 * Faction Paradox: a Negotiable History by Selene Walmric reappears in PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil.
 * The Great Detective Agency reappears in PROSE: Tales of the Great Detectives.
 * The Civil War is further explored in PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War, Apocalypse Day, God Encompasses, and Tales of the Civil War.