The balance point of interplanetary Cold War II between Earth and monolithic Yavet tips unexpectedly toward peace. Covert ops Captain Jazen Parker and his sharp shooting lover and partner Kit Born slide from world saving hazardous duty to escorting a telepathic alien monster home from Earth to mate. And the two of them are forced to consider a quiet domestic future together.

But when old enemies’ thirsts for power and revenge, Jazen’s problematic past, and his former girlfriend, upset Jazen and Kit’s personal balance point, the two cold warriors find their relationship, and their very survival, tested as never before.

Lost in space, and from one another, they must each penetrate Yavet, the universe’s most insular and repressive world, then foil a plot that could turn Cold War II hot and nuclear—or die trying. 

#3 in the science fiction adventure Orphan’s Legacy series.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves).

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Space Hero
by Patrick Lundrigan Tanya: Princess of the Elves
by Larry Correia The Grimnoir Chronicles: Detroit Christmas
by Larry Correia Kings
by Travis S. Taylor Mole Hunt
by Robert Buettner Intelligent Design
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller The Brute Force Approach
by Michael Z. Williamson Honorverse Tech Bu9
by David Weber and Ken Burnside The Talisman's Trinket
by P. C. Hodgell Murder at Ford’s Theater
by Bob Conroy Pawn to King Four
by Timothy Zahn

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2015.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Disaster
by Ryk E. Spoor When the Lion Feeds
by John Lambshead Lion Country
by Whit Williams The Adventurer and the Toad
by Ryk E. Spoor Chimera
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller We Fly
by K.B. Rylander The 100 MPG Carburetor and Other Self-Evident Truths
by Robert Buettner New Moon Wolf
by David B. Coe The Teacher
by Robert Conroy and J.R. Dunn Not For Ourselves Alone
by Charles E. Gannon Kiss From a Queen
by Jeff Provine Ember of the Past
by Mike Kupari Imperium Resource
by Jody Lynn Nye The Siege of Denver
by Brendan DuBois

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2016.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Adrift
by Terry Burlison Training and Truth
by Ryk E. Spoor Touchstone
by Sonia Orin Lyris Trouble: The Changeling and the Phooka
by Dave Freer Moonlet Sonata
by William Ledbetter Cadet Cruise
by David Drake 71
by David Brin Wise Child
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller Dear Ammi
by Aimee Ogden Bringer of Fire
by David Carrico Rock, Meet Hard Place (Part 1)
by Peter Nealen Rock, Meet Hard Place (Part 2)
by Mike Kupari The Lavender Paladin
by Shawn Snider Starhome
by Michael Z. Williamson Tethers
by William Ledbetter The Trouble with Millennials
by Robert Buettner

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2019.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

The Testimony of the Traitor Ratul by Larry Correia
Today I Remember by Martin L. Shoemaker
Extracurricular by Wm. Mark Simmons
Waiting for the Talisman by P.C. Hodgell
Voodoo Magic by Robert Buettner
Burners by Matt McHugh
Treason Properly by J.J. Cragun
Talk Girl by Wil McCarthy
Weeping Willikers by Aaron Michael Ritchey
A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Next Giant Leap by Patrick Chiles

At twenty-three, Jazen Parker has completed his Legion hitch a hero. But in four months, he'll have a price on his head. Worse, he's lost his past, and he can’t find his future. Worst of all, he's chosen to search for them on the deadliest planet known to mankind.

When Jazen reluctantly hires on to a Trueborn Earthman tycoon's safari to bag a deadly trophy, the reluctant mercenary finds himself shipped out to Downgraded Earthlinke 476, the outpost at the end of the universe known to everyone except its tourism bureau as "Dead End."

But the hunt goes terribly wrong, and Jazen must survive a tough, beautiful local guide who hates mercenaries, an eleven ton beast that can crush main battle tanks with one claw tied behind its back, and the return of a nightmare that has haunted Jazen since birth. Then Jazen learns that the stakes are not merely his own life, but the fate of an entire alien race.

About the Author

Robert Buettner was born July 7, 1947 in Manhattan, grew up in Cleveland and eventually slid west to Colorado. He earned a B.A. from the College of Wooster, with Honors in geology, then studied as a National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology at the University of Cincinnati, earning a Juris Doctorate. He worked in mining as a rig hand and prospector in the Sonoran Desert of Southwest Texas and the mountains of Alaska, and worked his way through law school as a petroleum geologist. He practiced natural resources law while serving out his Army Reserve Intelligence Commission as a Captain. He has been writing fiction since 1994. When not writing, he’s run marathons, climbed mountains, snowboarded and scuba'd. He currently lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge north of Atlanta with his family and more bikes than a grownup needs.

An exciting future thriller from nationally best‑selling author of the Orphan's Legacy science fiction saga. A face‑off with killers in order to guard a secret that could change humanity forever.

LIVE FOREVER—OR DIE TRYING

When the world’s richest man is the victim of a car bomb and literally blown off the Golden Gate Bridge the attack is attributed to terrorists and the world moves on. But some still wonder. Was Manuel Colibri targeted because, as Silicon Valley rumor has it, he was about to make the dream that people alive today can live to be one thousand come true?

Two people are pursuing the truth. Tech journalist Kate Boyle and recovering Iraq war veteran Ben Shepard race through the Bay Area chasing the only clues the reclusive Colibri left behind. They discover not only each other but a cosmic secret that can change human history—and may cost them their lives.

Second in the hard-hitting military science fiction Orphan's Legacy series. Ace intelligence operative Lt. Jazen Parker parachutes into a giant habitat known as Paleozoic on a mission to bring down the local politicos. He quickly realizes he's been handed a near-impossible task. Paleozoic is a politically quarantined nightmare world with a culture confined to iron rivet technology and a ruling regime a bit to the right of Heinrich Himmler. Jazen's inclined to abandon this particular hellhole to its ways—that is, until he uncovers a plot afoot that will throw a five hundred-planet alliance into the death-throes of anarchy.

So the local Nazis must go. Unfortunately, all Jazen's got to work with is a handful of rust-bucket tanks, a retread rebellion, and two strong, beautiful women who love him, but think he's tilting at windmills and is about to get himself killed. What they don't know is, once committed, Jazen Parker is the best there is when it comes to getting the dirty job done on the ground. It's the local bullies who are about to be taught a lesson in losing.