A RACE AGAINST TIME AND A GATEWAY TO THE UNKNOWN AWAITS

Thrilling space adventure from a Marine vet

Five years ago, astronaut Jack Templeton took the spacecraft Magellan to the farthest reaches of our solar system, never to be heard from again.

Until now.

When the Magellan suddenly reappears where an undiscovered planet was suspected to be, it poses more questions than answers. How did Jack survive all this time? Can he be rescued before his life support runs out? And what is the object long thought to be the elusive “Planet Nine?”

In a race against time, Jack’s former crewmate Traci Keene spearheads a desperate effort to outfit a rescue mission. But she has competition. Agencies of both American and foreign governments have their own agendas, and rescuing rogue astronauts isn’t among them.

And at the edge of all that is known, a gateway to the unknown awaits. . . .

"The situations are realistic, the characters interesting, the perils harrowing, and the stakes could not be higher...The story is one of problem solving, adventure, survival, improvisation, and includes one of the most unusual episodes of space combat in all of science fiction. It would make a terrific movie."
- John Walker, Ricochet.com

"...a fast-paced and exciting story which bounces between the borders of technological thriller and science fiction..."Farside" is an impressive effort."
- Mark Lardas, Galveston Daily News

A missing spacecraft –
A cryptic message –
And a fearsome secret hiding in plain sight.
Five years after he was marooned in Earth orbit, Ryan Hunter must go even farther to find the man who saved his life.
With former astronaut Penny Stratton, he leads an unconventional rescue team into a threat beyond anything he could have imagined. What they can’t know is that the fate of millions rests on their shoulders.
Because something big is coming...

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

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 2023.

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.

Black Box by Sean CW Korsgaard

The Quail Runs by D.J. Butler

Awakenings by Patrick Chiles

The Last Temptation of the Outsider by Simon R. Green

The Witch, the Woods, and the Elf Queen by Gregory Frost

The Insomniac by Brad Zeiger

A Lesson to Those Who Survive by D.J. Butler

Requiem - An Honor Harrington Story by David Carrico

Marshall Hunter only wanted to fly: the faster, the higher, the better. But a life of rescuing wayward spacefarers and derelict satellites in the cislunar cruiser U.S.S. Borman is far from the adventure he’d imagined. But his fortunes change when a billionaire couple goes missing on their way to a near-Earth asteroid. Out of contact and on a course that will eventually send them crashing into Mars, the nuclear-powered Borman is dispatched on an audacious, high-speed interplanetary run to bring the couple home. As they approach the asteroid, however, the Borman itself becomes hopelessly disabled.

With the Borman suddenly out of commission and far beyond reach, cislunar space begins falling into chaos as critical satellites fail and valuable lunar mineral shipments begin disappearing in transit. Nothing is as it seems, and Marshall Hunter and the rest of the crew suspect none of it is by coincidence.

THE BEGINNING OF LIFE AWAITS AT THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

When a tiny space probe hurtled past Pluto in 2015, no one could know that its most amazing discovery would remain hidden for years. Only when a long-lost Soyuz is destroyed in the skies above Siberia does the truth begin to emerge.

About to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the outer planets, the crew of the spacecraft Magellan learns someone else has beaten them by a few decades: a top-secret Soviet project codenamed Arkangel. It was a mission that began before most of them were even born, and the Kremlin believes it drove their most trusted crew mad.

During their long race to the Kuiper Belt, astronauts Jack Templeton and Traci Keene unwind a decades-old mystery buried in the pages of a dead cosmonaut’s journal. Challenging their own beliefs about the nature of humanity, they will soon confront the question of existence itself.

Reviewers have called it "a real barn-burner" and "the best darned 'sci-fi' novel I've read in years." Look for the sequel, FARSIDE, available now!

Stranded in orbit, with no way home before the air runs out…

A veteran pilot flying a revolutionary spaceplane,

A media mogul on an urgent mission halfway around the world,

And an aerospace legend fighting to save his legacy, in the face of a government that would stand aside to let it be destroyed.

At hypersonic speed, Arthur Hammond’s fleet of Clipper spaceplanes has become the premium choice for high-flying travel, placing every corner of the globe within a few hours’ reach. But when the line’s flagship is marooned in space with its VIP clients, the crew must fight to keep everyone alive while knowing that help may never arrive.

As they struggle with failing life support and increasingly desperate passengers, their colleagues back on Earth scramble to mount an audacious rescue. A contentious mix of old airline hands and NASA veterans, they will face shocking betrayals in a battle to save their friends.

In this race against time, Hammond must confront an onslaught of horrendous press, nitpicking bureaucrats, and dubious financiers – all of them pawns in a larger game, with his business empire as the prize. Amid a spreading web of industrial espionage, he may find the truth to be worse than imagined.

And in space, one man will discover that escape may demand a terrible sacrifice.

Knight Watch

by Tim Akers

Valhellions

by Tim Akers

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

Frontier

by Patrick Chiles

Frozen Orbit

by Patrick Chiles

Escape Orbit

by Patrick Chiles