FOREWORD
by Susan R. Matthews
Jurisdiction is slowly descending into a loose confederacy of states—Judiciaries—from the federal model that’s served it so well for so long (with allowances for recent developments, of course). Not everyone was all that committed to the integration of institutionalized torture as an instrument of State, and now that each Judiciary is free to start tweaking, some of them are making adjustments—no more Ship’s Inquisitors, and no more bond-involuntary Security slaves.
This leaves a certain number of professional torturers out of a job and tainted by association with what was legal then and is now still legal in some Judiciaries, but not in others (you can see the problem). While the Jurisdiction is shaking apart—relatively slowly, if not painlessly—the refugees of the no-man’s-land that’s known as Gonebeyond space are slowly coming together as a nation of their own, with a different model of governance. Consensus-based. Tripartite division of powers, maybe.
As a loose association of dirt-poor settlements Gonebeyond is vulnerable to exploitation, and wide open to criminal predation. Bench Intelligence Specialist Jils Ivers thinks that her associate Karol Vogel is on the right track in his efforts to facilitate nation-building.
One of the first challenges Gonebeyond faces is developing a framework for policing its own house. Another is forming some official means by which Gonebeyond can open trade relations with the very Bench from which many of its members had originally fled to escape persecution, prosecution, punishment: some way to gain recognition as an autonomous political entity, dealing on equal terms with the confederated Judiciaries.
Some Judiciaries are more open to this effort than others, and Haspirzak Judiciary in particular has taken the bold step of sending one of its own Bench judges to Gonebeyond to watch, learn, and represent a formal liaison between Gonebeyond and the Bench. Bat Yorvik’s very existence in the role of Bench Judge is an important indicator of the social changes taking place under Jurisdiction. Under the mentorship of the Third Judge at Haspirzak Judiciary he’s the first man to be promoted to the senior levels of the Bench in a long, long time.
The Langsarik Coalition owes its existence to Hilton Shires’ ability to negotiate, coordinate, and ultimately lead an ad-hoc police force whose mission is to eradicate predators from Gonebeyond, denying them their bases for operations, taking the war to where they live. In this novel Hilton appears as a battle commander, a leader of stature equivalent to that of the Flag Captain of the Langsarik Fleet itself.
So there’s a whole lotta changing going on around here. A now-out-of-work Inquisitor offers his services to the Langsarik Coalition, but Andrej Koscuisko doesn’t like him, because the evil and despicable and hateful Dr. Danyo Pefisct, tormentor of Joslire Curran prior to An Exchange of Hostages (found in Baen omnibus Fleet Inquisitor) and all-round Bad Egg, was responsible for the extra-judicial torture of a man Andrej loved—loves—at Fleet Orientation Station Medical, way back when. The Langsarik Coalition wants the field hospital Dr. Pefisct brings with him, and Andrej can’t kill Pefisct under the terms of the foundational Nurail Covenant: feud stops at the border. He’s not going to give up his fantasy of skinning Danyo alive without a fight, however.
It turns out that Yogee Gascarone, Gonebeyond’s new, self-selected Surgeon General, is a man Andrej knew from their days together at the Mayon teaching college, before Andrej lost his argument with his father and reported to FOSM to learn the duties of a Judicial torturer. That’s not all.
Security Chief Brachi Stildyne was not always the man we have come to know and maybe like a little bit. An ex-bond-involuntary Security troop has got some things to say to Stildyne about Stildyne’s behavior before he got to the Ragnarok, and things could get awkward.
This is a problem because people are looking to a future in which the Malcontent’s thula Fisher Wolf is going to start looking for reinforcements as people start to have real lives. Janforth is a good candidate for evaluation; but only if he can be persuaded not to skin Stildyne alive. There’s more. There will be more ex-bond-involuntaries in Haspirzak, meaning more coming to Gonebeyond, meaning more challenges in how to manage them. The wolf-pack—the crew of the Fisher Wolf—has experience. The Malcontent’s thula is one obvious place for people to go for their initial re-entry into lives as free men.
There’s a-gonna be Confrontations. Reconciliations. Evolutions. But don’t worry: this novel is fundamentally all about Things Getting Better.
This is more of an ensemble novel than an All Andrej All the Time book. I’ve got some new people to deploy, and at least one old friend—the Bench specialist Jils Ivers—plays a significant part in the action. In addition to Judge Bat Yorvick, Yogee Gascarone, and Janforth (the bond-involuntary from Haspirzak), there’s the cargo handler Medith Riggs, who has previously figured in the short story “Into Gonebeyond” (on the Baen website and in the Baen ebook collection Free Stories 2017, a free download at Baen Ebooks) and the novella “Stalking Horse” (in the Baen omnibus Fleet Insurgent).
This novel is the eighth in a series, and people have Histories. You have my solemn pledge that everything I think you need to know to fully plunge into the action of this novel (without skipping the narrative groove, as it were, for an exposition dump) is in this novel.
Since there can’t but be references, howsoever oblique, to backstory, I’ve set a notes section at the back of the book pointing you to where to go to Read More About any given reference I’ve been able to extract. I may not have gotten them all, but I’ve done my best. Feel free to contact me at www.susanrmatthews.com for more information.
I hope you enjoy this novel!