This story is set within the world of P.C. Hodgell’s Kencyrath Saga, with latest entry in the series By Demons Possessed out in May, 2019. P.C. Hodgell earned her doctorate at the University of Minnesota with a dissertation on Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, and is a graduate of both the Clarion and the Milford Writers Workshops. Now retired, she was a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in modern British literature and composition, and taught an on-line course on science fiction and fantasy for the University of Minnesota. Hodgell lives in her family’s ancestral nineteenth-century wood-framed house in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Every morning cook and housekeeper Cleppetania (“Call-me-Cleppetty”) scrubbed the kitchen floor of the Res aB’tyrr, then the tiles of the great hall, then the floor of the side room where those too drunk to leave the night before had been dragged. These latter she also rousted.

“Is it really safe to go out?” one old regular quavered, glancing in apprehension at the side windows through which, indeed, early sun light streamed.

“All safe, Gunter,” said Cleppetty, propelling him toward the front door. “Nothing will eat you on the way home.”

“Promise?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, these days, but better you leave before your wife comes looking for you.”

Alarmed, he scurried out.

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).

The shapes of both ships and planes have always depended on technology, so it should come as no surprise that space warcraft should be similarly affected. Such design considerations go back to the earliest warships.

Although usually equipped with sails, the earliest warships were generally propelled in battle by oars. Weapons were both short ranged and inaccurate, especially on those small, moving and pitching platforms. Unsurprisingly, ramming and boarding became the standard tactics. The earliest recorded naval battle appears to be the Battle of the Delta, fought about 1175 BC, when the Egyptians led by Ramses III repulsed a major invasion by the Sea Peoples.

Matt McHugh of New Jersey has won the grand prize in the 2019 Jim Baen Memorial Award competition for his short story "Burners."

Baen Books announces the sixth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest, a short story contest for best original unpublished fantasy short story of eight thousand words or less.

The awards will be given out at Spikecon in Layton, Utah this July. Visit https://www.baen.com/contest-faa for more information.

Baen Begins Selling Challenge Coins Through Baen.com