BEYOND THE EMPYREAN
A Primer
What is Beyond the Empyrean About?
THE STORY
Heliodore ‘Hel’ Brand is a genetically enhanced miner who works on the heavy gravity planet, Gehenna. Having been trapped in indentured servitude as a young man, forced to pay off debts for his genetic upgrades, he is stuck in a conman’s scheme under the rule of the corporate oligarchs of COMSEOC— until one day he hears Starsong, the singing of the Empyrean Gate. This song is something only a few people can hear, and this sets him off on a dramatic adventure to obtain his freedom, but perhaps only at a great cost.
THE HEROES
Heliodore 'Hel' Brand
Marcus Henriksson
Captain
Jenson Mikel
Melicent Lasko
Born in the Maia system, Hel is a Starsong savant who can hear the singing of the Empyrean Gate. He is also a genetically engineered miner who was orphaned as a teenager and sold into indentured servitude. Prior to the discovery of Starsong, he worked in the lithium mines on Gehenna for Mairon Salai.
Reluctant scion and adopted son of the Damianos family, Marcus is a genius in quantum physics and Hel’s love interest. Marcus has many secrets, one of which may provide clues about the nature of the Empyrean Gate.
A genetically engineered miner who works for Mairon and is Hel’s supervisor in the mines, Jenson, aka “Mike”, quickly becomes a rebel captain when the rebellion begins.
Originally the chief Exec working for Kosmas Damianos, Melicent is the mastermind behind the entire rebellion against COMSEOC. It was because of her intellect, planning, and compassion that the miners had a chance at freedom.
THE VILLAINS
Kosmas Damianos
(King Kosmas II)
Mairon Salai
Kali Umana
The Black Guards
The megalomaniacal chairman of COMSEOC, the corporate oligarchy which runs the Maia system. Kosmas has a god complex and perceives himself as a monarch. He and Marcus have a strained relationship.
An outlier in the COMSEOC oligarchy, Mairon is one of the MetaInts—a genetically enhanced genius—who is obsessed with solving the mystery of Starsong. He ruthlessly drives Hel forward in his quest.
Another of the COMSEOC oligarchs, Kali is also obsessed with Starsong and is even more ruthless than Mairon. Her agents are willing to torture information out of her rivals. She is also major fashionista and her fashion interests tend to become automatic hits with the general public.
The security forces on the Gehenna moon. They wear mechanically enhanced black armor to improve their strength. They are derogatorily called ‘The Blackguards’ by the miners.
OTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
Chthon
Lancelot
Dr. Sanda Thiri
Kuu Varju
The Celestial Pilot
Notorious hacker and a genius in cryptology and code-breaking; Chthon runs the Chthonic Underground, a Q-com newsletter that regularly criticizes the Maian establishment.
Lancelot is Hel’s companion animal and best friend. He is a genetically enhanced ocelot-housecat mix called an Ocecat™, with a greatly enhanced intelligence and lifespan. He can speak in his own Ocecat language (which Hel can understand) and even fly a space shuttle.
Mairon’s chief medical officer and surgeon. Sanda is also a MetaInt, who paid for her enhancements by becoming an indentured servant like Hel, but she enjoys the relative comfort of working as a doctor rather than a miner.
A Luojai genetic engineer who provided Hel with his upgrades. Longlived and ancient, the Luojai are dying out due to becoming sterile and seek to foster children through their genetic enhancements. As a result, Kuu became like a second mother to Hel.
The Celestial Pilot cannot be truly described. She is a mysterious figure who only appears to Hel and a few others. She may be one of the Ainar, an ancient race who transcended this universe for another one beyond time millennia ago.
PLANETS AND CITIES
Gehenna
Tartarus
Fiery Gehenna is a giant rocky Earthlike planet in the Maia system. Orbiting Maia once every 540 years in an extreme ellipse, Gehenna is currently in its summer season, and thus is blazingly hot. A hell-like planet, it is full of volcanoes, desert wastelands, and dangerous silicon life-forms, but also rich in minerals. No one lives here full time, but all the miners work on the surface during their shifts. The gravity is 3.5 times that of Earth, and though the atmosphere has oxygen and is breathable, there are far too many toxins to do so without a filter mask.
Icy Tartarus is Gehenna’s twin and is the exact same size and mass. However, since its orbit is the exact opposite of Gehenna’s, it is now in its winter. A frozen waste full of methane lakes and snow and ice, no one ever goes there except in the most extreme of need. (The artwork above depicts a methane lake on fire.)
Altus City Complex (Gehenna Moon)
Purgatory Station
Both Gehenna and Tartarus have moons, and these moons are the exact same size and mass as one another, and are about 3/4 the mass of Earth. Thus, the gravity is comfortable on their surfaces. Protected by their domes on Gehenna’s moon and tucked away in their luxury lifestyles, the pampered moon citizens scarcely know how harsh life is on the outside. The largest dome city on Gehenna’s moon is Altus City Complex (pictured above).
Purgatory Station, aka The Gehenna Indentured Servant Mobilization Center, is the primary residence of all Gehennese miners and other indentured servants in service to the oligarchs of COMSEOC. A quasi-Space Halo, it is in orbit above the planet Gehenna.
Lithium Mines of Gehenna
A Sentinel-7 FLAC Fighter
These are the lithium mines of Gehenna. All the genetically enhanced heavy-gravity miners work in these pits, toiling away to find lithium ore to fuel all the nuclear fusion reactors both in the Maia system and back on Earth. Since the Titan colony mines were destroyed by Gorathkai attack in 2615, demand has been up. Hel works here in 3.5 G on 16 hour shifts.
A Sentinel-7 FLAC fighter fires its Plasma EM cannons at a group of carpenter drones amid debris in the asteroid field. (Chapter 26)
TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS
Graviton Drive & Graviton Field Generations (GFGs)
Kuunterä Ritual Knife
These technologies are core to practically everything that happens in the 27th-century. Both work by manipulating gravity, but are otherwise very different technologies. (I will write another short essay on this subject at some point in the future.)
The ritual Luojai knife that Kuu gives Hel. (Chapter 34)
Beyond the Empyrean
27th century metahuman Heliodore ‘Hel’ Brand is a genetically engineered warrior. Like many of his fellow metahumans, his immense gifts are wasted in the mines of Gehenna for one of the oligarchs of the Maia system, Mairon Salai. When it is discovered that he is a Starsong savant, one of a few who can hear the singing of the Empyrean Gate, he is forced to embark on a dangerous series of missions that may provide the necessary clues to open an entire faster-than-light network.
Available now in Amazon Kindle, Paperback and Hardcover Casewrap editions.
Available at Barnes & Noble in paperback and dust jacket hardcover editions.
PUBLISHED BY TORC BOOKS
All text, graphics, and artwork are © 2022 MICHAEL SCOTT PHILLIPS
STAY TUNED FOR AN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT A SIGNED HARDCOVER DUST JACKET EDITION!
IN UNIVERSE EDITORIAL REVIEWS
“A very exciting and accurate account. Michael has captured my voice precisely. I’m verklempt, too emotional perhaps, but very grateful for his skills as a biographer. If you want to know what really happened in 2616 in the Maia system, this is the book to buy.”
—Lieutenant Hel Brand.
“While I respect the attention to detail and the intensity of emotion in this depiction of my former employee’s journey, I resent the persistence of a unilateral perspective. Far too much of my own beautiful vision of authoritarian MetaInt rule is left off… nevertheless, Mr. Phillips has created a dramatic and gripping account of the events of the Second Maian Rebellion.”
—Mairon Salai, COMSEOC oligarch
“Exactly as I remember it. I feel like I’m reliving every detail because the worldbuilding is so deep and visceral.”
—Captain Jenson Mikel, rebellion leader
“One day, perhaps I’ll reveal my own notes on this gripping adventure—for now, they’re top secret and triple-encoded under 49-qubits of quantum encryption—but in the interim this is a great book that covers all the known facts and doesn’t skimp on the heart-pounding excitement. Don’t wait. Buy it.”
—Chthon, editor of the Chthonic Underground digital magazine
“Of all the pale imitators of this story that fill the digital libraries of the galaxy, this one is the most genuinely thrilling. It breaks my heart to read about the intensity of Hel’s suffering in this journey. He kept it all hidden behind a stoic wall, and now it is revealed for the first time. That’s how deep, emotional, and thoughtful this story is.”
—Marcus Henriksson
“Rubbish! This nonsense is nothing like what happened. It paints me as the villain! Can you believe it? Never has anyone been so persecuted in the history of the universe! This ridiculous book is a False Report! Zero stars!”
—King Kosmas II, Chairman of COMSEOC
“A solid retelling of the Second Maian Rebellion. I can only hope that my own story will receive the same skilled and nuanced treatment by Michael Scott Phillips. There is so much more to tell, and I hope it will be covered in future sequels. Doubtless, Beyond the Empyrean remains the most essential and cogent primer on the subject. Highly recommended.”
—Dr. Sanda Thiri
“A scintillating narrative with incredible nuance. I’ve already read all the sequels and they’re even more brilliant. Michael just keeps getting better as a writer. Five Starsongs.”
—The Celestial Pilot, one of the timeless Ainar