A CALL to DUTY BOOK I of Manticore Ascendant
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A CALL TO DUTY BOOK I OF Manticore Ascendant DAVID WEBER & TIMOTHY ZAHN A Novel of the Honorverse A Call to Duty: Book I of Manticore Ascendant David Weber and Timothy Zahn Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life . the two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately. But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assign- ment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of budgetary extinction. The Star Kingdom is a minor nation among the worlds of the Diaspora, its closest neighbors weeks or months away, with little in the way of resources. With only modest interstellar trade, no foreign contacts to speak of, a plague-ravaged economy to rebuild, and no enemies looming at the hyper limit, there are factions in Parlia- ment who want nothing more than to scrap the Navy and shift its resources and manpower elsewhere. But those factions are mistaken. The universe is not a safe place. Travis Long is about to find that out. Also in the HONORVERSE by DAVID WEBER THE STAR KINGDOM A Beautiful Friendship Fire Season (with Jane Lindskold) Treecat Wars (with Jane Lindskold HONOR HARRINGTON On Basilisk Station The Honor of the Queen The Short Victorious War Field of Dishonor Flag in Exile Honor Among Enemies In Enemy Hands Echoes of Honor Ashes of Victory War of Honor At All Costs Mission of Honor Crown of Slaves (with Eric Flint) Torch of Freedom (with Eric Flint) The Shadow of Saganami Storm from the Shadows A Rising Thunder Shadow of Freedom Cauldron of Ghosts (with Eric Flint) EDITED BY DAVID WEBER: More than Honor Worlds of Honor Changer of Worlds The Service of the Sword In Fire Forged Beginnings BAEN BOOKS by TIMOTHY ZAHN Blackcollar: The Judas Solution Blackcollar (contains The Blackcollar and Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission) The Cobra Trilogy (contains: Cobra, Cobra Strike and Cobra Bargain) Cobra War Cobra Alliance Cobra Guardian Cobra Gamble Cobra Outlaw (forthcoming) A CALL TO DUTY: BOOK I OF MANTICORE ASCENDANT This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any re- semblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2014 by Words of Weber, Inc. & Timothy Zahn All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 www.baen.com ISBN: 978-1-4767-3684-6 Cover art by David Mattingly First printing, October 2014 Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weber, David, 1952– A Call to Duty : a Novel of the Honorverse / David Weber and Timothy Zahn. pages cm. — (Manticore Ascendant ; Book 1) ISBN 978-1-4767-3684-6 (hardback) 1. Science fiction. I. Zahn, Timothy. II. Title. PS3573.E217C35 2014 813’.54—dc23 2014020010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Pages by Joy Freeman (www.pagesbyjoy.com) Printed in the United States of America eISBN: 978-1-62579-313-3 Electronic Version by Baen Books www.baen.com For Anna, Diane, and Sharon. Thanks for putting up with us. FOREWORD You may have noticed that this book has two authors’ names on the cover: David Weber and Timothy Zahn. There really ought to be a third name on it, however, and that name is Thomas Pope. When David decided to invite Tim to do an Honorverse series set in the early days of the Star King- dom and dealing with the actual birth of the Royal Manticoran Navy, he wanted the books to do more than merely cover a time period which hadn’t been fully explored in the Honor Harrington novels. He wanted them to have a different feel, as well, and he’d always really, really liked Tim’s writing. The fact that Tim had done several short fiction pieces for the anthologies—including one which happened to be set in exactly the right time period—was icing on the cake. So after due consultation with Toni Weisskopff, the invitation was issued. But, wait, you say! Did we not say that there should be three names on the cover? Indeed we did, be- cause Tom Pope and BuNine have been assisting David in the expansion, indexing, and enrichment of (and other really neat labors of love for) the Honorverse for a long time now. In point of fact, it wouldn’t be especially unfair to say that by this time, Tom knows at least as much about the nuts and bolts of the Honorverse as David does, since David spends lengthy periods of time discussing them with Tom on the phone and having the occasional “Ohhhhhh, shiny!” moments along the way. So, especially since we were going to be dealing with the necessity of filling in David’s existing notes about the Star Kingdom’s early history, and the far cruder technology available at the time the RMN was created, it made perfectly good sense to him to bring Tom on board, as well. He’s been the main keeper of the technology, plot analyst, concept suggester, continuity analyst, copy editor, and proofreader throughout the project, and in the process, his contribution is as much a part of this book’s DNA as anything Tim or David might have con- tributed. The only reason his name didn’t appear on the cover of this first book was a marketing concern. Be- cause there have been so many multi-author anthologies in the Honorverse, we felt some concern lest the appearance of three authors on the cover might have led people to assume that this was another antholo- gy, and not a complete novel intended as the first of a series of complete novels. Some people don’t read anthologies, and we were afraid they might pass this book by if that was what they thought it was. Since we happen to think it’s a pretty darn good book, we would have considered that a tragedy. Of course, the crass commercialism of missed sales would never have entered our thinking, you understand. However, when it comes to the second and any subsequent Travis Long novels, you will see all three authors listed on their covers. Hopefully by the time Book Two comes out, this first one will have thor- oughly clued them in to the fact that they are looking at novels, not anthologies. And that’s enough about why there are only two names on the cover. If we keep on gabbing away at you’ll never get the book read. So shoo! Go read! We hope you have as good a time reading it as the three of us had writing it. David Weber Timothy Zahn BOOK ONE 1529 PD CHAPTER ONE “Mom?” Travis Uriah Long called toward the rear of the big, quiet house. “I’m going out now.” There was no answer. With a sigh, Travis finished putting on his coat, wondering whether it was even worth tracking his mother down. Probably not. But that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try. Miracles did happen. Or so he’d been told. He headed down the silent hallway, his footsteps unnaturally loud against the hardwood tiles. Even the dogs in the pen behind the house were strangely quiet. Melisande Vellacott Long was back with the dogs, of course, where she always was. The reason the an- imals were quiet, Travis saw as he stepped out the back door, was that she’d just fed them. Heads down, tails wagging or bobbing or just hanging still, they were digging into their bowls. “Mom, I’m going out now,” he said, taking a step toward her. “I know,” his mother said, not turning around even for a moment from her precious dogs. “I heard you.” Then why didn’t you say something? The frustrated words boiled against the back of Travis’s throat. But he left them unsaid. Her dog-breeding business had had first claim on his mother’s attention for as long as he could remember, certainly for the eleven years since her second husband, Travis’s father, had died. Just because her youngest was about to graduate from high school was apparently no reason for those priorities to change. In fact, it was probably just the opposite. With Travis poised to no longer be underfoot, she could dis- pense with even the pretense that she was providing any structure for his life. “I’m not sure when I’ll be home,” he continued, some obscure need to press the emotional bruise driv- ing him to try one final time. “That’s fine,” she said. Stirring, she walked over to one of the more slobbery floppy-eared hounds and crouched down beside him. “Whenever.” “I was going to take the Flinx,” he added. Say something! he pleaded silently. Tell me to be in by mid- night. Tell me I should take the ground car instead of the air car. Ask who I’m going out with. Anything! But she didn’t ask. Anything. “That’s fine,” she merely said, probing at a section of fur on the dog’s neck. Travis retraced his steps through the house and headed for the garage with a hollow ache in his stom- ach.