Voices of the Silicon Beyond — E.S. Wynn

Vaetta is not human. Vaetta is a synthetic female who looks human, a Valkyrie-model agent, but far more than a mere robot. Her world is overcrowded, and its resources have reached the breaking point. The humans who govern this parallel Earth need a solution to their civilization's problems - and quick!

The perfect opportunity seems to present itself when a strange, androgynous visitor appears from an inexplicable portal to another world. His name is Tyse, and he too is seeking help, because his people, a Wraeththu tribe, are also under threat. He reveals how his world is sparsely populated, following the demise of humankind and the rise of a civilization known as Wraeththu who now hold power. In Vaetta's world, the Wraeththu have never even appeared...

To Vaetta's creators, Tyse's arrival seems to offer a golden opportunity - a resource-rich world ripe for the taking and the portal to reach it. The existing inhabitants, living in the ruins of a former civilization, and not even human, can hardly impede plans for mass colonization. Vaetta is chosen to lead a troupe of Valkyries to Tyse's Earth to scout, explore and begin preparations for invasion.

But Vaetta soon discovers that her owners' assumptions are incorrect and what waits for her on the other side of the Conduit - the portal to Tyse's Earth - is a situation far beyond her own people's imaginations. Just who and what is the mysterious Dragon? Why do alien emotions begin to course through her synthetic mind? Some things just don't make sense to her, until a fatal meeting through which she discovers a history with far-reaching implications covering all realities.

A deft and page-turning climax to E. S. Wynn's popular 'Gold Country' series, 'Voices of the Silicon Beyond' opens up intriguing new vistas in the Wraeththu Mythos.