Hyperion

The pilgrims arrive at Chronos Keep, which is not only recently abandoned but has signs of bloodshed. They opt to spend the night there before going on; however, their group is no longer a prime number, which superstition says appeases the Shrike. Rachel does not count, as the pilgrims must decide for themselves to make the journey. The Ouster war begins above them. While watching the battle’s bursts of light, they spy a tall, hooded figure walking toward the Time Tombs. The Consul reluctantly pulls out an old comlog (a communication device) to set the background for his story.

His grandfather, 19-year-old Merin Aspic, was a Shipman on a spinship, a ship used mostly for interstellar travel, helping to build and install farcasters. While working above Maui-Covenant, he went to the planet with a friend. His friend Mike convinced him to leave the boring isle to which they were restricted and fly off on hawking mats to a festival of inhabitants on Firstsite, another isle. At a masquerade there, Merin met 15-year-old Siri and fell in love. They spent several days together until Siri’s cousin Bertol, the son of a Separatist (a rebel movement that opposed Maui-Covenant’s incorporation into the Hegemony), attacked and killed Mike for being with the Hegemony. In turn, Merin killed Bertol. He then fled with Siri but left when the security crew of his ship came for him.

For his crime, Merin was reduced in rank and not allowed to have rest and relaxation off-ship. However, 11 months later, his commander ordered him back to Maui-Covenant, as Merin’s involvement with Siri had become something of a legend. His 11 months away were seven years for her since he was traveling in space, which slows aging. During Merin’s time away, Siri had also born his son, a boy named Alón. Periodically, Merin would have to go back to his ship, but his relationship with Siri continued, even as he stayed in his twenties while she eventually aged into her seventies.

During one of Merin’s stays with Siri, she took him swimming under one of the motile isles that the planet was known for, and with a device they were able to speak to the dolphins who had been brought from Old Earth. The dolphins told him that they missed the sharks and whales. Siri was concerned about what effects having a farcaster and joining the Hegemony would have on Maui-Covenant with the influx of tourists and developers.

Merin and Siri had another son named Donel who later joined the Hegemony Council. In the intervening years, Siri gained prominence and power on Maui-Covenant and was even able to deter an angry mob that wanted to attack the Hegemony crew.

Merin and Siri had six reunions, but the seventh was Siri’s funeral and the inauguration of the farcaster. Merin entered her tomb to find a box with his name on it, containing Mike’s old hawking mat and recordings from Siri. In one recording, she told him that their son Alón had been killed, and it wasn’t an accident: The Council police killed him because he was with the Separatists.

Merin understood what she wanted. Shortly after the farcaster came into operation, he detonated the bomb he had planted on it for her. Thus began Siri’s Rebellion, in which Merin died. Before his death, Merin gave his grandson, Donel’s son, the comlog recording with all this information. The Consul is that grandson, and Merin forbade him from joining the rebellion.

Eventually, the rebellion was suppressed and Maui-Covenant was brought into the Hegemony Protectorate. The Consul studied on the Hegemony’s main planet (Tau Ceti Center) and joined the diplomatic corps. He married a woman descended from Siri’s cousin Bertol and worked in the Outback worlds for the Hegemony, lying to colonists about the future effects of joining the Hegemony and exterminating any intelligent indigenous life.

He developed an addiction to alcohol and moved his family to Bressia just before the Ousters attacked it. His wife and young son were killed in the attack. The Consul was then promoted and sent to negotiate with the Ousters. He came to see that they are more evolved than the rest of humanity in the Web, which clings to the old ways. The Ousters told him that the destruction of Old Earth was not an accident. They gave him a device to open the Time Tombs and release the Shrike upon the worlds.

While he was the Consul of Hyperion, he let his aide do the governing. Meanwhile, he awaited a signal from the Ousters who understand space/time better than the Hegemony and could shield against the anti-entropic fields of the Time Tombs and collapse them. The Consul went to the tombs with three Ousters who debated using the device to open them, even though it would take months to work completely. The order was to wait until the attack on Hyperion was imminent before activating it, as there were ethical qualms. The Consul then killed the Ousters, activated the device, and reported to Ouster command that the Shrike had killed them.

The other pilgrims debate whether they should kill the Consul, as he was a double agent, the Ouster spy. They accuse him of killing Het Masteen, but the Consul claims innocence. He says that Het’s reaction to his treeship burning—a tree to which he was telepathically connected—was muted, strange, as if he knew it was going to happen. The pilgrims ultimately decide to absolve him as a man who sought revenge for the harm done to his family by both the Hegemony and the Ousters.