The Saga of Seven Suns

Having colonized many worlds in the Spiral Arm, humanity is divided into three branches: the Earth-based Terran Hanseatic League (Hansa) and its subordinate planets, the independent world Theroc with its telepathic green priests, and the Roamers, interplanetary traders who prefer starships and hidden bases to a conventional planet-based civilization. The only other known intelligent species in the galaxy are the Ildirans, an ancient civilization at its peak, and the long-extinct Klikiss, whose planets remain empty but for their unusual ruins.

As the novel begins, the Hansa's test of a recently discovered ancient Klikiss technology that can convert gas giant planets into suns is a success. The ignition of the planet Oncier will eventually make its satellite moons into habitable worlds perfect for human colonization, but it has also murdered millions of hydrogues, a previously-unknown race of gas elementals living in the high-pressure core of the planet. Confined in crystalline globe ships, the hydrogues retaliate by systematically destroying several Roamer skymines, floating factories which harvest the hydrogen used to produce the vital stardrive fuel ekti from the atmosphere of gas giants. The powerful warglobes also destroy the moons of Oncier and the scientific space station there before warning the human race to stay away from all gas giants or be destroyed. This ultimatum is punctuated by the murder of the Hansa's puppet king Frederick and everyone in his vicinity.

As a lack of ekti will cripple both the human and Ildirian civilizations, and the hydrogues refuse to negotiate or even respond to human overtures of peace, their ultimatum is effectively a declaration of war. The humans and Ildirans mount a defense to protect their interests, but the virtually indestructible hydrogue ships and their lightning and ice weapons seem an unconquerable enemy. Arrogant Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas, the real power behind the Hansa, installs the young Prince Peter as Frederick's successor. Hand-picked by Basil from obscurity and specially trained for his role as Hansa figurehead, the new King Peter is soon at odds with the Chairman, whose governing style seems more to Peter like a self-serving consolidation of power than a means to lead the human population in a meaningful way. Meanwhile, the sudden appearance of the hydrogues complicates matters for Ildiran Mage-Imperator Cyroc'h; he and his predecessors have kept the existence of the hydrogues a secret for millennia as they plotted a means to neutralize the threat should the hydrogues return. Cyroc'h's own heir, Prime Designate Jora'h, has fallen in love with the human green priest Nira Khali, and Cyroc'h soon comes to believe that her telepathic abilities could be of use to his failing hydrogue plan.[1]

Five years after the war began, the hydrogues maintain absolute control over the galaxy's gas giant planets. On Earth the government is tightening its grip on rebellious colonies while seeking to dominate the other humans throughout the galaxy, unaware that the seemingly-benign Klikiss robots, left behind when the Klikiss died out, are actually planning the destruction of the human race as they did their parent Klikiss. The Roamer skymines have been abandoned or destroyed, but innovative clans have come up with smash-and-grab tactics to acquire what ekti they can. The worldtrees of Theroc have been revealed as the verdani, ancient rivals of the hydrogues. Though a heartbroken Jora'h believes she is dead, Nira is secretly a captive being used in the clandestine breeding scheme of Mage-Imperator Cyroc'h to create an Ildiran capable of communicating with the hydrogues. So far the best candidate appears to be Osira'h, the secret daughter of Nira and Jora'h. The Hansa begins building military robots (Soldier compies) to fight the war using technology copied from Klikiss robots. Two new races of elemental entities are rediscovered—the fire-based faeros and aquatic wentals—who join in the war against their ancient enemies, the hydrogues.[4]

The elemental war between hydrogues and faeros continues to sweep across the Spiral Arm, extinguishing suns and destroying planets. Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas (and his figurehead King Peter) attempts to unify all branches of the human race to stand together against the threat, even if they must resort to deception and oppression to do so. The Roamer clans and the people of Theroc do not give up their independence easily, however, and Basil's policies soon force the disparate civilizations to forge alliances of their own. Partly as a distraction from their peril and partly as a desperate hope, the Hansa launches an ambitious new colonization program using the network of recently discovered Klikiss transportals, instantaneous gateways that take colonists to many abandoned Klikiss worlds. On the planet Ildira, newly crowned Mage-Imperator Jora'h faces the responsibilities and secrets his predecessors have imposed upon him: a breeding program forced upon a colony of human captives and an uneasy pact with the Klikiss robots that could result in the extinction of the human race. But Jora'h must also survive an open rebellion among the Ildirans unleashed by his own brother Rusa'h, the first in 10,000 years.[5]

Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora'h is preoccupied with the bloody rebellion that his brother Rusa'h has launched across the Ildiran planets, with the help of Jora'h's own first-born son Thor'h. But as the war between the hydrogues and faeros continues, the hydrogues offer the Ildirans peace if they help destroy the humans. On Earth, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas continues his red-herring war against the Roamer clans. With some of their hidden bases found and destroyed, the wandering Roamers scatter into hiding, trying to keep their culture and government intact, even when faced with enemies from all sides. Speaker Cesca Peroni, leader of the Roamers, finds herself stranded on a small icy outpost where miners have uncovered a hibernating army of Klikiss robots. It soon becomes clear to Cesca that the black robots are anything but benign.[6]

With the fate of the Hansa seeming darker than ever, the increasingly desperate and irrational Chairman Basil Wenceslas's punitive treatment of Hansa colonies and free-spirited Roamers, as well as his refusal to aid the burned forest world of Theroc, has made enemies all around. Earth’s own Soldier compies have rebelled thanks to secret programming by the Klikiss robots, taking over most of the Earth Defense Force battleships across the Spiral Arm. Pushed into a corner, Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora'h has reluctantly agreed to assist the hydrogues in exterminating the human race so that the Ildirans will be spared. Ancient verdani thorny tree battleships arrive after a long journey across the universe to aid Theroc, while the Roamers' plan to seed aquatic planets with wentals to rejuvenate the elemental race comes to fruition. The final hydrogue assault on Earth is put in motion, and with the Hansa's loss of military might and allies, the outlook is grim.[7]

The hydrogues have been defeated across the galaxy thanks to the combined efforts of the Earth Defense Forces, the Ildiran Empire, the Roamer clans, the wentals and the verdani. But as the various factions try to recover, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas intends to brutally crush any resistance to his rule. King Peter and Queen Estarra, having escaped Earth and Basil's plot to kill them and their unborn child, have fled to Theroc and declared a new Confederation. Peter embraces the Roamer clans, denouncing Basil and assuring that the essential Theron green priests across the galaxy will not aid the Hansa until Basil abdicates. An ever-growing number of colony worlds, already devoted to Peter and tired of their treatment by the Hansa, also declare their independence from Basil's government and ally themselves with Peter. Despite several losses in their bid to seize control of the galaxy, the Klikiss robots continue to attack helpless worlds with stolen Earth battleships. They are stunned to come face to face with their ancient enemies the Klikiss, who have returned after 10,000 years intent on reclaiming their former worlds and willing to annihilate anyone who happens to be in the way. Jora'h's brother Rusa'h, thought killed when his rebellion was crushed, returns as an avatar of the faeros, devouring the souls of planet after planet of Ildirans to rejuvenate the weakened fire elementals and destroy Jora'h.[8][9]

At the end of his rope, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas has alienated all of the other factions in the Spiral Arm in his increasingly myopic and destructive struggle to reconsolidate the power he once held over the human race. With the Ildiran Mage-Imperator his hostage to thwart an Ildiran alliance with King Peter's Confederation, Basil installs a new puppet king of the Hansa: Peter's own brother Rory, thought killed years before. Rusa'h and the faeros have seized control of Ildira and Theroc with much loss of Ildiran and human lives.

A few hundred years before the events of Hidden Empire (2002), eleven generation ships had been dispatched from an overpopulated Earth to find new planets to colonize. One of the ships, the Caillié, ultimately stumbles upon the Ildirans, an advanced race capable of faster-than-light travel. The Ildirans help the inhabitants of the Caillié settle the planet Theroc and rescue most of the remaining human ships, then send an envoy to Earth seeking an alliance. Earth is now governed by the wizened King Ben, with Hansa Chairman Malcolm Stannis pulling the strings behind the scenes.[10]