Against The Tide
 Problems, Problems, Problems . . .
The world had been a paradise until the Fall, when the holders of the control codes for the world-spanning program called “Mother” fell out in civil war.
The United Free States felt well defended behind its screen of elite Dragon carriers that held sway in the Atlantis Ocean. But when New Destiny proved to have dragon carriers of its own, and more of them, the linch-pin of the UFS defense went out the window.
Now, with the UFS’ back to the wall, everything seems to be going New Destiny’s way.
But there are problems.
Edmund Talbot had never really studied naval warfare, but what he didn’t know about war in general hadn’t been written. So when he took over the UFS navy, at its moment of utter defeat, New Destiny’s problems were just starting.
And little did the instigator of the civil war, Paul Boman, know that his closest confidante was the daughter of the UFS’ head of intelligence. Megan Travante, for four years mired in a concubine’s harem, has just been recruited to be an agent in the enemy camp. Of course, she’s also planning on murdering Paul, just as soon as she gets a chance.
Herzer Herrick, the UFS’ premier ground fighter, has problems of his own. A man who’s “good with his hands” he’s also found he’s good with a dragon. Which is why he’s the XO of a dragon contingent instead of fighting in the front lines of the ground battle. With a crew of brand new pilots, undertrained dragons, untrained support personnel, the bitchiest dragon CO on Earth and a ship’s commander who’s half cat, he has enough problems for any one man. And then he gets an order that drops a whole passel more in his lap.
The battle of dragon carrier on dragon carrier is about to start, with the fleets pursuing each other over half the Atlantis Ocean in a game of cat-and-mouse.
But all the cats are on the side of the UFS.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food. He chose to study marine biology and really liked it. Unfortunately the pay was for beans. So he turned to quality control database management, where the pay was much better. His highest hopes were to someday upgrade to SQL Server, at which point, he thought, his life would be complete. But then Fate took a hand: John has become a professional science fiction writer, and is in the early stages of becoming fabulously wealthy, which his publisher has assured him is the common lot of science fiction writers who write for Baen Books. In addition to his own enthusiastically received and New York Times best-selling military SF series—A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell’s Faire—he is collaborating with fellow New York Times best-selling author David Weber on a new SF adventure series: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few, with more to come.
With his bachelor years spent in the airborne, cave diving, rock-climbing, rappelling, hunting, spear-fishing, and sailing, the author is now happy to let other people risk their necks. He prefers to write science fiction (both alone and in collaboration with David Weber and others) raise Arabian horses, dandle his kids and watch the grass grow. Someday he may even cut it. But not today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe he’ll just let the horses eat it.
Cover art by Clyde Caldwell
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 Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First Hardcover printing, February 2005
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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Printed in the United States of America |
ISBN: 0-7434-9884-4
Copyright © 2005 by John Ringo. Verses from "The March of Cambreadth" copyright © by Heather Alexander and used by permission of the author.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
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