RESPLENDENT - DESTINY'S CHILDREN : B O O K 4 - Cadre Siblings

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca

“RESPLENDENT” from “Destiny’s Children” (Book 4) presents a future Earth under Qax rule, narrated through Luru Parz’s long-lived perspective. Luru works for the Extirpation Directorate, tasked with destroying data that preserves personal histories, while her superior Cana frames the mandate as “obliteration” and questions whether this work is morally ambiguous. The chapter “Resurgence” introduces Luru’s assignment to reach Symat Suvan, a former cadre sibling, to help him minimize pain and death for himself and others amid looming hostility outside the Conurbation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages545

Reading Time13 h 59 min

AccessFree to download

ONE : RESURGENCE

Cadre Siblings

Conurbation 2473

Reality Dust

All in a Blaze

TWO : THE WAR WITH THE GHOST S

Silver Ghost

The Cold Sink

On the Orion Line

Ghost Wars

The Ghost Pit

THREE : ASSIMILATION

Lakes of Light

Breeding Ground

The Dreaming Mould

The Great Game

FOUR : RESPLENDENT

The Chop Line

In the Un-Black

Riding the Rock

FIVE : THE SHADOW OF EMPIRE

Mayflower II

Between Worlds

SIX : THE FALL OF MANKIND

The Siege of Earth

ALSO BY STEPHEN BAXTER FROM GOL LAN CZ NON-FICTION Deep Future FICTION * The Mammoth Sequence: Mammoth Longtusk Icebones Behemoth * Reality Dust Evolution * Destiny's Children: Coalescent Exultant Transcendent Time's Eye, A Time Odyssey: Book One (with Arthur C. Clarke) Sunstorm, A Time Odyssey: Book Two (with Arthur C. Clarke) * Time's Tapestry: Emperor The Web: Gulliverzone The Web: Webcrash In Weidenfeld & Nicolson NON-FICTION Revolutions in the Earth RESPLENDENT DESTINY'S CHILDREN : B O O K 4 STEPHEN BAXTER GOLLANCZ LONDON CONTENTS ONE : RESURGENCE 3 Cadre Siblings 5 Conurbation 2473 20 Reality Dust 32 All in a Blaze 81 TWO : THE WAR WITH THE GHOST S 9 1 Silver Ghost 93 The Cold Sink 107 On the Orion Line 118 Ghost Wars 152 The Ghost Pit 190 THREE : ASSIMILATION 205 Lakes of Light 207 Breeding Ground 224 The Dreaming Mould 248 The Great Game 261 FOUR : RESPLENDENT 281 The Chop Line 283 In the Un-Black 313 Riding the Rock 331 FIVE : THE SHADOW OF EMPIRE 375 Mayflower II 377 Between Worlds 439 SIX : THE FALL OF MANKIND 495 The Siege of Earth 497 My name is Luru Parz. I was born in the year AD 5279, as humans once counted time. Now I have lived so long that such dates have no meaning. We have lost the years, lost them in orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, I am still here. I was born on Earth. But Earth was not human then. It belonged to our conquerors, the Qax. O N E RESURGENCE CADRE SIBLINGS AD 530 1 Before she was assignment , structive. called into Gem o Cana's office for her awkward new Luru Parz had never thought of her work as de- Cana stood before the window , a portal whose natural light betrayed her high status in the Extirpation Directorate. Red-gold sunset light glimmered from the data slates fixed to the walls of the office. Beyond the pharaoh's round shoulders Luru could see the glistening blownsilicate dome s of the Conurbation's residential areas , laced by the bluegreen of canals. And on the misty horizon a Qa x ship , a Spline , cruised above oc cupied Earth , swivelling like a vast eyeball. Where it passed there rose a churning wave of soil and grass and splintered trees. 'Never,' Cana murmured. 'You never thought of it that way , as destructive. Really? But we are destroying data here , Luru . That is what"Extirpation " means . Obliteration . Eradication . A rooting out. Have you never thought about that? ' Luru , impatient to get back to work , didn't know how to reply. If this was some new method of assessment it was obscure , Cana's strategy non-obvious. In fact she resented having to endure this obscure philosophising from Cana , who most people regarded as a musty relic cluttering up the smooth running of the Directorate. Among Luru's friends and pushy rivals , even to report to a pharaoh was seen as a career impediment. 'I'm not sure what you're getting at. ' 'Then consider the library you are working on , beneath Soiled Laik City. It is said that the library contains an ancestral tree for every man , Woman and child on the planet , right up to the moment of the Occupation. You or I could trace our personal history back thousands of years. Think of that. And your job is to destroy it. Doesn't that make you feel at least ' - Cana's small hands opened , expressive - 'ambiguous , morally? ' Cana was short , stocky , her scalp covered by silver-white fuzz. Luru , her own head shaven , knew nobody else with hair, a side-effect of AntiSen esc en ce treatment , of course . Cana had once told Luru she was so old she remembered a time before the Occupation itself, two centuries back. To Luru , aged twenty-two , it was a chilling idea. She thought over what Cana had said. ' I don't even know where"Soiled Laik City" is - or was . What does it matter? Data is just data. Work is just work. ' Cana barked laughter. 'With a moral void like that you'll go far

FAQs

What is Luru Parz’s role in the Extirpation Directorate?

Luru works in the Extirpation Directorate, where her job involves destroying data, including records that preserve personal histories.

Why does Cana challenge the morality of Luru’s work?

Cana argues that “Extirpation” means eradication and obliteration, and asks whether destroying ancestral records feels morally ambiguous rather than neutral.

What is Luru assigned to do regarding Symat Suvan?

Cana orders Luru to seek out Symat Suvan and persuade him to focus on minimizing pain and death for himself and others, implying he is in a dangerous position.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca