The Fortress in Orion Read online

  ALSO BY MIKE RESNICK:

  Starship: Mutiny

  Starship: Pirate

  Starship: Mercenary

  Starship: Rebel

  Starship: Flagship

  The Buntline Special—A Weird West Tale

  The Doctor and the Kid—A Weird West Tale

  The Doctor and the Rough Rider—A Weird West Tale

  The Doctor and the Dinosaurs—A Weird West Tale

  Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future

  New Dreams for Old

  Stalking the Unicorn

  Stalking the Vampire

  Stalking the Dragon

  Published 2014 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books

  The Fortress in Orion. Copyright © 2014 by Mike Resnick. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, products, locales, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination

  or are used fictitiously.

  Cover illustration by Dave Seeley

  Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht

  Inquiries should be addressed to

  Pyr

  59 John Glenn Drive

  Amherst, New York 14228

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  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Resnick, Michael D.

  The Fortress in Orion / Mike Resnick.

  pages cm. — (Dead Enders ; Book One)

  ISBN 978-1-61614-990-1 (paperback) — ISBN 978-1-61614-991-8 (ebook)

  1. Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction. 2. Human-alien encounters—Fiction.

  3. Space warfare—Fiction. 4. Science fiction. 5. War stories. I. Title.

  PS3568.E698F67 2014

  813'.54—dc23

  2014023891

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3A

  3B

  3C

  3D

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  Epilogue

  Appendix 1: The Origin of the Birthright Universe

  Appendix 2: The Layout of the Birthright Universe

  Appendix 3: Chronology of the Universe Created in Birthright: The Book of Man

  About the Author

  PROLOGUE

  Everything hurt.

  Pretorius lay on his back, trying to focus his eyes on the door some ten feet away from the foot of his bed. It took him almost two minutes of intense concentration for it to stop swiveling like a belly dancer.

  He gingerly tried flexing his left hand and felt the fingers move. He tried the same thing with his right hand and felt nothing.

  He ran his left hand over his torso, winced as it came in contact with medical dressings, and lay perfectly still until the pain subsided.

  Finally he turned his head to the left and saw half a dozen tubes leading from his body. Some went to what he recognized as the standard life-support machines, but two of them were connected to translucent vats. There was something in each of them—a pair of dissimilar somethings, actually—but he couldn’t make out what they were.

  A white-clad figure—he couldn’t focus enough to determine its gender—approached him and began manipulating something on his left side.

  “Damn, that smarts!” he muttered.

  “Ah, you’re awake,” said the figure in a feminine voice.

  “I’d prefer to think that I’m having a nightmare,” he replied.

  “You have a visitor, Colonel Pretorius, one who is very anxious to see you.”

  Colonel Pretorius. Right, that’s me. I’d forgotten. Then: I wonder what my first name is?

  “Tell whoever it is to go away,” rasped Pretorius. “We are not entertaining visitors.”

  The woman—he could focus enough now to see that it was a female doctor—laughed. “Same old Colonel Pretorius!”

  He frowned. “I’ve been here before?”

  “It’ll come back to you.”

  “In this lifetime?” he asked.

  She chuckled again. “I’ll let your visitor explain.”

  She walked to the door; it opened. She gestured to someone on the far side of it and stepped aside as a burly man with a shock of white hair and a matching mustache entered the room.

  “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll take it from here.” She nodded and walked out the doorway, which snapped shut behind her. “Welcome back, Nathan.”

  Son of a bitch! Nathan is me!

  “I’ve been gone?”

  “In every possible way.”

  Pretorius managed to focus even better and saw that his visitor wore a general’s uniform.

  “How many possible ways would that be?”

  The general smiled. “You went out on a mission—I’ll give you all the details later, if you have trouble remembering them—and you accomplished it, as you always do.”

  “I don’t remember a damned thing,” said Pretorius.

  “That’s because you’ve only been awake a few minutes.”

  “So where am I back from?”

  The general smiled. “You’re back from Benedaris IV in the Albion Cluster.” He paused. “You’re also back from whatever the hell is on the Other Side.”

  Pretorius frowned. “The other side of what?”

  “Life. You died for a few minutes during surgery.”

  Pretorius tried to shake his head and winced. “I don’t remember a damned thing.”

  “Too bad. There’s plenty that would pay through the nose to know what it’s like there.”

  “On Benedaris IV?”

  The general looked amused. “You have one more guess.”

  Pretorius grimaced. “I don’t want it.”

  The general threw back his head and laughed. “That’s my Nathan!”

  Pretorius stared at him. “I seem to remember you. Kind of.”

  “You ought to. We’ve been working together for a dozen years. I’m Wilber Cooper. Name ring a bell?”

  Pretorius concentrated, then frowned. “You’re the bastard who keeps sending me out on these missions.”

  “See?” said Cooper with a grin. “You do remember.”

  “What happened to me?”

  “We’re hoping you’ll tell us when you’re strong enough to be debriefed. But it was messy. See these two cases?” Cooper tapped the two translucent vats. “One of them is cloning you a spleen, and the other a pancreas. They should be ready for you, or you for them, in a week.” He paused. “Looks like we’re also going to give you a prosthetic foot, to replace the artificial one you ruined. There’s not a whole lot of the original Nathan Pretorius left.”

  “How long have I been here?” asked Pretorius.

  �
�A few weeks.”

  Pretorius frowned. “Weeks?”

  Cooper nodded. “You’ve been in a medically induced coma. They just let you wake up about an hour ago.”

  “And I fulfilled my mission?”

  “You always do.”

  “What was it?”

  “You led a team into a buried facility on Benedaris where the Bolio kept the weaponry they planned to use to disrupt the upcoming Spiral Arm Games. It was pretty sophisticated stuff. There’s not a scanning station in the Democracy that can spot it. Ten of those bastards could have wiped out, oh, eighty or ninety thousand spectators before we killed them.”

  “And I disabled the weapons?” asked Pretorius.

  Cooper smiled. “That’s one way of putting it. You blew up a third of the goddamned planet.” He paused. “They killed your men while you were escaping and came damned close to killing you. You were quite a mess when we found you.”

  “I thought you said I did die.”

  “In surgery, not in the field,” responded Cooper. “Though I suppose it comes to the same thing in the end.”

  “So since I’m clearly damaged goods, I suppose I should ask about my pension and the best retirement communities.”

  Cooper emitted a heartfelt belly laugh. “Forget it, Nathan! We’re in the middle of a war!”

  “You’re in a war,” said Pretorius. “Me, I’m in a hospital.”

  “For the fourth time,” said Cooper. “Or is it the fifth?”

  “How the hell should I know?” demanded Pretorius. “I didn’t even know my name ten minutes ago.”

  “It’ll come back to you. It always does.”

  “I get shot up a lot, do I?”

  “It’s a dangerous business,” replied Cooper. “But you’re the best covert agent we’ve got, and there’s no way you’re walking away from this.” The general paused, then added: “And once your brain and body are working again, you won’t want to.”

  Pretorius stared at him and had the uneasy feeling that he was right.

  1

  Pretorius was sitting in his room, staring out the window at the gardens just beyond, when the door opened and a tall orderly, not quite human but clearly humanoid, entered the room.

  “Excuse me, sir,” said the orderly in a harsh, rasping voice. “You have a visitor.”

  “I’ll excuse you if it’s anyone but that Cooper.”

  “That’s General Cooper, sir,” said the orderly.

  Pretorius grimaced. “How did I know?”

  “May I show him in, sir?”

  “Absolutely not,” said Pretorius. “He’s the last man I want to see.”

  “This is a military rehab center,” said a familiar voice from beyond the room. “You let me in and make yourself scarce or I’ll have you court-martialed.”

  “He’s lying,” said Pretorius. “He does that a lot.”

  “Sir,” said the orderly, “may I present General Cooper.”

  Cooper strode into the room and turned to the alien orderly. “Scram, son,” he said.

  “Good-natured as ever,” noted Pretorius.

  “Nathan, my boy!” said Cooper expansively. “How are you?”

  “I was fine until thirty seconds ago, and I haven’t been a boy in twenty years.”

  “Do I detect some veiled hostility here?” said Cooper with an amused smile.

  “Absolutely, except for the veil,” replied Pretorius. “Leave me alone.”

  “The medics tell me you’re being released tomorrow,” continued Cooper. “It’s time to talk business.”

  “It’s time to talk recuperation,” said Pretorius. “Leave me alone.”

  “Can’t do that, Nathan my boy! There’s still a war on.”

  “I’m not your boy, and there’ll still be a war on whether I listen to you or not.” He glared at Cooper. “I’d prefer not.”

  “That’s exactly what you said the last two times,” noted Cooper cheerfully.

  “You mean the last two times I was almost killed carrying out your hair-brained schemes?”

  “Need I remind you they were your schemes?”

  “They were your fucking impossible targets.”

  “Nonsense,” said Cooper. “You accomplished your missions, didn’t you?”

  Pretorius glared at him. “Go away.”

  “Do we have to go through this every time?” said Cooper with a heavy sigh.

  “No,” answered Pretorius. “You could just leave me the hell alone instead.”

  Cooper frowned. “What’s gotten into you, Nathan?” he asked with mock concern.

  “You want a list of every alien piece of crap they dug out of my body?”

  Cooper laughed heartily. “You always had a fine sense of humor, my boy!”

  “I’m thrilled that you appreciate it,” said Pretorius. “Now go away. Visiting time’s over.”

  “Oh, I’m going,” responded Cooper. “Just as soon as you get your clothes on. I’d wait outside, but first, we’re old friends, and second, you’d lock and barricade the door the second I walked through it.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Yes, you are. We’ve come up with something really unique, a plan that’ll excite even you.” He paused. “Especially you.”

  “The only thing that excites me right now is the thought of solitude.”

  “I’m not kidding, Nathan. This is something we’ve been working on for three years. When you see it, it’ll just blow you away.”

  “I’ve been blown away,” said Pretorius. “It hasn’t got a lot to recommend it.”

  Cooper leaned forward, unable to keep the excitement from his face. “This is the Big One, Nathan—the one that could change the entire course of the war.”

  “It seems to me I’ve heard that before.”

  “Those missions you’ve gone on were major, there’s no question about it.” Cooper paused. “But this one’s a game changer, Nathan. It’s the game changer.”

  Pretorius sighed deeply. “All right, tell me about it.”

  Cooper shook his head. “I’m going to show you. Start getting dressed.”

  “Whatever happened to ‘Just listen’?” asked Pretorius.

  “I can explain it,” replied Cooper, “but it’ll make much more sense if you see it for yourself.” A pause. “You’re going to love it, Nathan!”

  “If it’s so great, why did you bother sending me out on the last couple of missions?”

  “This one wasn’t ready until now.” Cooper’s face brightened. “Wait ’til you see it, Nathan! It may change the course of the whole damned war.”

  “I’ve heard that before,” said Pretorius.

  “Not from me. Trust me on this, Nathan.”

  “It seems to me that I’m learning how to walk and breathe and eat again because I trusted you the last few times.”

  “This is war, goddamnit!” snapped Cooper, pounding the wall with a fist that made a metal clanging sound. “You think you’re the only soldier who was ever injured?”

  “All right,” said Pretorius with a defeated sigh. “Tell me what this is all about.”

  Cooper shook his head. “I’ve got to show you. It’ll make more of an impression.”

  “Are you trying to impress me or prepare me?”

  “Both.”

  “All right,” said Pretorius, getting to his feet. “Where are we going?”

  “Not far,” said Cooper. “Climb into your clothes and follow me.” A moment later Cooper was leading him out the door, down a corridor, and over to an airlift. They floated up to a docking station, emerged a few feet from Cooper’s personal flier, and were aloft a few seconds later.

  Before Pretorius could ask how far they were going, Cooper gave some coded orders to the autopilot and the flyer banked right, slowed down, hovered over the roof of a building Pretorius had never seen before, and descended slowly, landing with barely a tremor.

  “This way,” said Cooper, climbing out of the flyer and heading off for an airli
ft. When he got there he waited for Pretorius, who was still getting used to his new leg and still recovering from his organ transplants, to catch up with him.

  “How’re you holding up, son?” asked Cooper.

  “I’m managing, and I’m not your son” was the reply.

  “Follow me,” said Cooper, entering the airlift.

  “Is this thing working?” asked Pretorius as they passed the ground floor and kept descending.

  “Perfectly,” Cooper assured him.

  They descended five more levels and finally came to a stop. When they emerged, Pretorius found himself flanked by heavily armed officers, who fell into step with him behind the general.

  They walked down a corridor, entered a large room, crossed it, and came to a halt at a heavy door that reminded Pretorius of a bank’s safe, complete with what seemed to be a pair of state-of-the-art locks.

  Cooper uttered a coded command so softly that none of the men could hear him. The instant he did so a narrow beam shot out, examined the insignia on his uniform, matched it against his face and skeletal structure, and the door slid open.

  “You men wait here,” ordered Cooper. “Nathan, come with me.”

  The two of them walked into a large chamber, and the door snapped shut behind them.

  “Alone at last,” said Pretorius sardonically.

  “Not quite alone, Nathan,” replied Cooper. “Come this way.”

  He led Pretorius off to the left, where there was a single table, some ten feet long. On it rested a translucent container, almost eight feet long, three feet high, and four feet in width, topped by a shimmering energy field. As they approached it, Pretorius was able to make out the form of an alien. It was some six feet tall, with a prehensile nose, more like that of a proboscis monkey than an elephant’s trunk. It had two very wide-set eyes, both of them shut; earholes but no ears; and a sharply pointed chin. Its arms were the length of a gorilla’s and just as heavily muscled. Its feet were almost circular. Its head and body were devoid of hair, and its color, top to bottom, was a dull red. A number of small wires were attached to its head. And it was breathing.

  “Okay,” said Pretorius, “so you’ve got a Kabori. Get four hundred million more, and that’s one less threat we’ll have to face in this war.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Other than the fact that he’s breathing?”

  Cooper grinned. “Take a closer look.”

  Pretorius frowned, stepped closer to the alien, studied it, and suddenly looked up.