Joelle Presby was born in France, raised in Cameroon, and now lives in the United States. She writes science fiction and fantasy. Here web site can be found here.

Note: This short story is set after the events of The Road to Hell (Multiverse #3) by David Weber and Joelle Presby. In the Multiverse of those series novels, two worlds spanning human civilizations occupy their own chains of Earths connected through naturally occurring portals. They have been at war since first contact on Hell’s Gate when a powerful telepath, the daughter of the Sharonan Cetacean Ambassador Shalassar, broadcast the defeat of her Sharonan unit of explorers by an Arcanan military exploration force. The Arcanans have magic, often placed in crystals and used to control magically created animals from dragons and griffins to three-headed hydras. The Sharonans have telepaths and steam power level technology. While the Arcanan magic beasts have been an aerial force and a logistical powerhouse, the intelligent whales, dolphins, and orca back on the Sharonan home world have not previously involved themselves in the humans’ conflict.

Sharona

A seal-sized shadow flippered along the surface. It looked so delicious. The orca Teeth Cleaver wanted it. He powered up from the blue-black deep ready to feast on marbled fat and mouthwatering seal steak. Tired down to his very cartilage, a warm-blooded meal would do very nicely.

But an overly spiny reef creature darted past his jaws, and he snapped at it in pure reflex. The shell’s taste was vile, but his belly felt ready to eat itself, he was so hungry.

The shadow above resolved into a narrow hull and oars.

Jim Beall (BS-Math, MBA, PE) has been a nuclear engineer for over forty years, a war gamer for over fifty, and an avid reader of science fiction for even longer. His experience in nuclear engineering and power systems began as a naval officer. Experience after the USN includes design, construction, inspection, enforcement, and assessment with a nuclear utility, an architect engineering firm, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC).

Stars recycle and so must we if we are to travel between them.

Stars have practiced recycling from near the beginning

The ordinary matter of the early universe was mostly hydrogen with some helium. Population III stars formed out of that primordial mix (with trace amounts of lithium and beryllium) and fused more hydrogen into helium. Those stars had comparatively short lifespans ending in supernovas (or other stellar events such as becoming black holes) and spreading heavier elements into space where they—along with hydrogen—became part of Population II stars.

Contest Jointly Sponsored by Baen Books and The National Space Society Honors Positive Fictional Takes on Space Exploration

Baen Books 2020 Awards Eligible List

Here’s a list of all the works published in 2020 which are eligible for awards.

Baen Books announces the top ten finalists for the 2020 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award for best original fantasy short story.

Join David Weber, Eric Flint and More in Livestream Showcasing New and Upcoming Books

M.T. Reiten of Los Alamos, New Mexico, has won the grand prize in the 2020 Jim Baen Memorial Award competition for his short story “Bagala Devi Objective.”

Innovative Independent Publisher to Bring Author Readings, Q&As, and Convention-Style Programming to Facebook LIVE

A list of all novels, short stories, and nonfiction pieces published by Baen Books in 2019, which are thereby eligible for most major awards

Over 170 titles from Baen Books to be published as audiobooks over the next three years