The Timeweb Chronicles: Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus Read Online Free

point of orange light, flew toward one of the outer worlds.
    Abal Meshdi chuckled, and thought , The Humans believe they are such masters of technology, but we have a surprise for them.

Chapter Four
    Timeweb ensnares the past, the present, and the future. As each moment becomes the past, it folds into the web and seems to disappear without actually doing so. Simultaneously, in a great cosmic balance, the future opens up for us … little by little.
    —Tulyan Imprint
    Seated in the back of a maglev limousine, the man gazed out a tinted window as the car hummed along a mountain track, snaking downhill. Through morning vistas that opened between sun-dappled trees, Noah Watanabe saw immense factories and office complexes below in the Valley of the Princes, facilities that were operated by the titans of industry who controlled the multi-planet Human Empire. For a few seconds, he barely made out the high-walled perimeter of his father’s CorpOne compound, with its radically-shaped structures, an imaginative variety of geometric and artistic combinations.
    On the opposite side of the valley, Rainbow City—the largest industrial metropolis on Canopa—clung to a shimmering, iridescent cliff. Workers occupied homes on the lower levels of the community, while the villas of wealthy noblemen studded the top like a crown of jewels. For decades Prince Saito had owned one of those palatial residences, and Noah recalled some happy times growing up there … but only a few. There had been too many family problems.
    It was early summer now, with the canopa pines and exotic grasses of the valley still bright green, having gorged themselves with moisture in anticipation of the coming dry months. Noah viewed it as a survival mechanism, and thought that plants were just as intelligent as other life forms, but in different ways. This and other controversial beliefs frequently put him at odds with the wealthy industrialists of the Merchant Prince Alliance, including his own father.
    Noah wore a velvis surcoat and a high-collar shirt with a gold chain around the neck. His muscles bulged under the fabric. He was accompanied by six men dressed in the green-and-brown uniforms of the Guardians, his force of environmental activists who were known as “eco-warriors.” The men were armed with high-caliber puissant rifles, as well as sidearms and an arsenal of stun-weapons, poisons, and plax-explosives. They sat silently, staring outside in all directions, ever on the alert for danger. Ahead of the black car and behind it on the maglev track—as arranged by Prince Saito—were nine other identical vehicles, thus preventing potential aggressors from targeting Noah too easily. An air escort of CorpOne attack hellees flew overhead, and the entire area around him had been scanned by infrared and other devices.
    Enemies could still defeat any of these systems. Technology was that way; you could never be certain what your adversary knew, or what he had developed to use against you in the eternal dance of offensive and defensive advancements. People wishing to do Noah harm might still be lurking in the woods or in the air, but he believed in fate; if something was meant to get him, it would.
    This was how he felt about the upcoming meeting with his father, which he had not expected to occur. Upon receiving the message from the old man, Noah had experienced a visceral sensation that a greater power was at work, drawing them together. Perhaps the two of them, who had disagreed so vehemently about industrial and environmental issues in the past, might find some common ground after all. Noah had always held onto a thread of hope that this might happen, but had taken no steps in that direction, until he replied to his father’s recent message.
    Noah’s strong belief in fate did not mean that he just sat around and waited for things to occur. Far from it. The penultimate activist among activists, he was an assertive leader who constantly pushed events,