Mutineers' Moon

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Mutineers' Moon is a science fiction novel written by David Weber. It is the first book in his "Heirs of Empire" trilogy, and is available in the Baen Free Library.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book begins with a prologue recording a mutiny aboard the planetoid-sized Utu-class starship of the Fourth Imperium (a 7,000 year old technologically advanced multi-star system empire), the Dahak, led by its Chief of Engineering, the ambitious and psychopathic Captain Anu. Anu's ostensible reason for mutiny is to lead his followers to refuge on some remote planet where presumably the genocidal wrath of the "Achuultani", a mysterious alien race that periodically exterminates all intelligent life it can find, and which has destroyed the previous three Imperiums, will pass over them.

The loyal crew is taken by surprise, and unable to defeat the mutineers. Faced with no choice, the captain orders Dahak to execute "Red Two"—a command which will flood the entirety of the interior of the vessel with extremely deadly gases and compounds; this action will force both mutineers and loyalists to the lifeboats, and the vessel will then, acting on its other orders from the captain, allow back in the Dahak only the loyal crew and blow the disloyal members out of space. Red Two unfortunately entails the death of the captain as well. Because of his death, he is unable to command Dahak to destroy the mutineers as they leave aboard warships, not lifeboats, and the captain is equally unable to undo Anu's systematic sabotage of the power generators, intended to kill Dahak by starving it of power and thereby rendering it open to conquest by Anu's forces.

Unfortunately for Anu, Dahak's computer systems catch the sabotage before it utterly wrecks all the power plants, but the damage is so severe that it is forced to cease all communications and non-necessary expenditures of power. Indeed, the damage takes millennia to repair—by which point none of the loyal crew is still alive or able to contact the Dahak, which places the ship in a dilemma in which it cannot return to the Imperium as it has been ordered to, but nor can it exterminate the mutineers as other, equally important, orders dictate. This impasse lasts for approximately 50,000 years, until the Earthling's early space program sends up one Lieutenant Commander Colin MacIntyre to map the interior of the heavenly body Dahak had camouflaged itself as—the Moon.

His mission is hijacked by Dahak and his death is faked; had MacIntyre returned with his data, Dahak’s cover would have been blown. While aboard, Dahak (the AI, not the vessel proper) explains the situation to MacIntyre, and prevails upon him to, as a descendant of the loyalists, to become Dahak’s newest captain, and to quickly exterminate the mutineers—quickly, because Imperium installations are being methodically destroyed, sure signs of the beginning of the latest Achuultani incursion. MacIntyre reluctantly accepts. The first step to making him the true captain is to surgically massively revamp his body, granting him nigh superhuman resilience, speed, and strength, in addition to the built-in electronics granting matchless control of Imperium technology.

While Dahak has known for thousands of years where Anu's forces have bunkered up—under the South Pole in Antarctica—their base is protected by extremely strong force fields, force fields so strong that to penetrate them and destroy the base would require Dahak's heavy weaponry, which would inevitably kill a significant percentage of the human population of Earth; an untenable action, to say the least.

MacIntyre returned to his old home to renew contacts with his elder brother, Sean, and to enlist him in a scheme to discover the mutineers' agent in the space program. It initially succeeds, but when he and Sean attempt to contact the agent, they discover their scan of the space program building was detected, and that it was a trap. MacIntyre and Sean fend off some of the mutineers (at the cost of Sean's life), but is rescued by an acquaintance, who sends him through a tunnel where he is captured by another group of mutineers.

This group, lead by former missile tech Horus, was a dissident splinter faction of Anu's, which turned against him after the mutiny, and has spent the ensuing years promoting technological progress and warring on Anu.

Eventually, this group and its battleship, the Nergal, joins MacIntyre, and they embark on a grand plan to destroy Anu: first, they rapidly and effectively destroy a number of important installations that Anu's terrorists and other forces are based out of (convincing Anu to withdraw all of his important personnel back to the main base), then they have their agents inside the Antarctica base steal them the codes to gain access; finally, they fake a major defeat, and when Anu relaxes, certain that they were cowed and hurt, their now-at-liberty agents send them the codes and they launch a full assault, backed up by Dahak's orbital weaponry.

The assault costs them dearly, but Anu is killed and his forces captured or dead. With the full revelation of Dahak’s power, the world's governments have little choice but to submit to the Planetary Governor MacIntyre. However, Colin has little time to unify the world, because the Achuultani draw ever nearer, and the Imperium is silent, even when Dahak’s communication systems are repaired. At the end, MacIntyre leaves the world under the care of old Horus, and departs for the nearest Fleet Imperium base, hoping to call upon Imperial assistance.