Moonseed

Moonseed
Stephen Baxter

Venus has exploded.

Showering Earth with radiation and bizarre particles that wipe out all the crops and half the life in the oceans.

Suddenly, the ground itself begins melting into pools of dust that grow larger every day. For what has demolished Venus, and now threatens Earth itself, is part machine, part life-form – a nano-virus, dubbed Moonseed.

Four scientists are all that stand between Moonseed and Earth’s extinction, four brilliant minds that must race to cut off the virus and save what’s left of the planet.

STEPHEN BAXTER

MOONSEED

THE NASA TRILOGY

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_5ed5643e-c0ed-54e4-9d52-9be506095e1f)

HarperVoyager an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk (http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 1998

Copyright © Stephen Baxter 1998

Cover photo © NASA

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Stephen Baxter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008134532

Ebook Edition © June 2012 ISBN 9780007392353

Version: 2015-10-07

DEDICATION (#ulink_3a89f6bc-8178-55bf-b78c-5a6237ae2816)

For Sandra, with all my love

CONTENTS

Cover (#ue0f54e49-6f19-5503-9f51-016b5d2c4421)

Title Page (#u9f984c9f-4551-5bd7-bc51-cf35c4b7447e)

Copyright (#u7c6d3241-128e-531b-bb88-1199af3168d3)

Dedication (#ue4267dae-de8b-5464-ac4d-b6a66d3c4a00)

Dramatis Personae (#ue39de1f8-7c15-50c8-bda0-f3d42c3b61cb)

I Big Whack (#uf1bfb644-2356-545d-bc87-918dd3bd53a5)

II Ard Tor (#u8d0c9198-6e2b-5de5-8214-ee796f9b0953)

III Earth (#litres_trial_promo)

IV Moon (#litres_trial_promo)

V Bottleneck (#litres_trial_promo)

VI Nadezhda (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise for Stephen Baxter (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (#ulink_fec715d7-80ff-53b6-a775-9098e995143e)

Henry Meacher, geologist, NASA

Geena Bourne, Space Station astronaut

Jane Dundas, shopkeeper

Arkady Berezovoy, Space Station astronaut

GREAT BRITAIN

EDINBURGH:

Jack Dundas, son of Jane

Mike Dundas, technician

Ted Dundas, retired police officer

Ruth Clark, neighbour of Ted Dundas

Hamish Macrae, aka Bran, cult leader

Billy Macrae, brother of Hamish

Alan Macrae, father of Hamish

Dan McDiarmid, geologist, Edinburgh University

Marge Case, geologist, Edinburgh University

Constable Morag Decker, police officer

Blue Ishiguro, geologist, USGS