Coyote Horizon

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

ORBITAL DECAY
CLARKE COUNTY, SPACE
LUNAR DESCENT
LABYRINTH OF NIGHT
A KING OF INFINITE SPACE

 

THE JERICHO ITERATION
THE TRANQUILLITY ALTERNATIVE
OCEANSPACE
CHRONOSPACE

 

COYOTE
COYOTE RISING
COYOTE FRONTIER

 

COYOTE HORIZON

 

SPINDRIFT
GALAXY BLUES

 

 

RUDE ASTRONAUTS
ALL-AMERICAN ALIEN BOY
SEX AND VIOLENCE IN ZERO-G: THE COMPLETE “NEAR SPACE” STORIES
AMERICAN BEAUTY
THE LAST SCIENCE FICTION WRITER

 

 

PRIMARY IGNITION: ESSAYS 1997-2001

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2009 by Allen M. Steele.

“Part Two: Walking Star” was originally published, in slightly different form, in
Forbidden Planets
,
edited by Marvin Kaye, Science Fiction Book Club, May 2006.
Map illustrations by Ron Miller and Allen Steele.
Calendar illustration by Allen Steele.

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Steele, Allen M.

eISBN : 978-1-101-01956-6

1. Space colonies—Fiction. 2. Life on other planets—Fiction. 3. Outer space—Exploration—
Fiction. 4. Interplanetary voyages—Fiction. I. Title.

 

PS3569.T338425C693 2009
813’.54—dc22
2008049491

 

 

When I began writing
Coyote
in early 2000, I believed that the tale I wanted to tell—the story of the first starship from Earth and the first interstellar colony—could be done in one volume. I’d been researching and developing this particular novel through most of the previous decade; after a couple of false starts, the time had finally come to put it down on paper.

As things turned out, though, the story was too big for one novel, so I decided to write a sequel,
Coyote Rising
, which would tie up the threads left hanging at the end of the first book. Yet that wasn’t enough, either; by the time I finished the second book, I’d come to realize that I still hadn’t answered a lot of questions I myself had put forward. As a result, a third book became necessary, and thus I wrote
Coyote Frontier
.

Once the Coyote trilogy was finished, I turned my attention to other matters, including a couple of independent novels—
Spindrift
and
Galaxy Blues
—set in the same universe. Then something happened that I didn’t expect.

When reviews of
Coyote Frontier
started coming in, quite a few critics expressed the opinion that, while it was obvious that I’d wrapped up the story line, there was more about Coyote that remained to be told. Then I began receiving fan mail from readers, with the majority asking me to write more. One reader used the maps Ron Miller and I had created to build a globe of Coyote; it now rests on my desk as a reference tool. Another took my description of the Coyote Federation flag to make one for me; it’s taped to my notebook. Yet another went so far as to create an entire fan website that included interactive maps and lists of all the major characters, events, starships, and locales mentioned in the books (you can visit it at
www.coyoteseries.com
). Not long after that,
Coyote
entered the curriculum of university science-fiction courses, with one student emailing me to ask questions for a dissertation she was writing about the trilogy.

Motivated by the attention, I decided to write some short fiction about Coyote. The first story, “Walking Star,” occurred after the events of
Coyote Frontier
; a slightly different version appears in this novel as Part Two. A second novella, “The River Horses,” filled in the gap between
Coyote
and
Coyote Rising
. And a short story, “The War of Dogs and Boids,” related an incident that didn’t make its way into
Coyote
. I thought these stories would satisfy everyone, but they only added fuel to the fire. Readers continued to insist that I write more about the world I had created, and after a while I came to realize that, although the original story arc was complete, I wasn’t finished with this place yet.

It should be pointed out that
Coyote Horizon
isn’t the “fourth book of the trilogy” but rather the first volume of a duology; the second volume,
Coyote Destiny
, will conclude the story arc. Although astute readers of this series may notice that the events of
Coyote Horizon
are roughly concurrent with those depicted in
Galaxy Blues
, it isn’t necessary to read the other book first in order to understand this novel.

This novel is dedicated to everyone who asked for more. Thank you for your support, and for demanding that I return to Coyote.

Carlos Montero—former president and diplomatic attaché, Coyote Federation

Wendy Gunther—former president, Coyote Federation

Susan Montero—naturalist, Colonial University

Jonathan Parson—captain, CFS
Ted LeMare

Jorge Montero II—Susan and Jon’s son

 

Hawk Thompson—customs inspector

Melissa Sanchez—prostitute

Sawyer Lee—wilderness guide

Joseph Walking Star Cassidy—equerry

Morgan Goldstein—CEO, Janus Ltd.

Mike Kennedy—Goldstein’s bodyguard

Grey Rice—Dominionist missionary

Alberto Consenza—Dominionist deacon

Joe Bains—parole officer

Lynn Hu—journalist

Barry Dreyfus—pilot and first mate, CFS
Ted LeMare

David Laird—member, Living Earth

“Hurricane Dave” Peck—bartender

Charlie Banks—gyro pilot

Owen McKay—innkeeper

Bess Cole—barmaid

Yuri Scklovskii—drover

Anastasia Tereshkova—commodore, Coyote Federation Navy

Russell Heflin—chief petty officer, CFSS
Robert E. Lee

Tomas Conseco—aide to Wendy Gunther

Dieter Vogel—ambassador, European Alliance

Mahamatasja Jas Sa-Fhadda—
hjadd
Prime Emissary

Jasahajahd Taf Sa-Fhadda—
hjadd
Cultural Ambassador

Traveler’s Rest, the home of two former presidents of the Coyote
Federation, was located on top of the Eastern Divide, the granite wall that separated the savannas of New Florida from the broad expanse of the East Channel. Built of sturdy blackwood imported from Great Dakota, with a slate roof cantilevered at a forty-five-degree angle, the manor overlooked the channel and the port town of Bridgeton and, on the other side of the Divide, the grassy flatlands that lay southwest of Liberty. The residence had its own wind turbine, a slender pylon on which three blades slowly rotated in the early-spring breeze, as well as a satellite dish perched on a corner of the roof. Although visible for many miles, the house could only be reached by a narrow dirt road that wound its way up the ridge.

President Gunther’s personal aide had recommended that she come ahead of time, so Lynn Hu made sure that she arrived at Traveler’s Rest an hour before her scheduled appointment. It wasn’t until the cab she’d hired in Liberty came to a halt at the front gate at the bottom of the ridge, though, that she knew why. An iron-barred arch eight feet tall, the gate was the sole point of entry through the chain-link fence surrounding the estate. Although the bluff was steep enough to challenge even the most dedicated of climbers, the fence extended all up the side of the Divide, prohibiting anyone from climbing over. If that weren’t enough, solar-powered floodlights and surveillance cameras were positioned on posts within the fence.

To be sure, the couple who lived here had good reason to guard their privacy. Yet in the three weeks that she’d been on Coyote, Lynn hadn’t seen this measure of protection since going through customs at the New Brighton spaceport. Even Government House was remarkably accessible; all she’d had to do to arrange a meeting with the current president was present her credentials and have a brief chat with a couple of bureaucrats before she was escorted upstairs to his office.

Despite his colorful past—an uncle who’d been a hero of the Revolution, teenage years spent as a member of the Rigil Kent Brigade, being elected mayor of Clarksburg despite having a notorious brother who was murdered by his own son—Garth Thompson had given her a boring interview, with little worth quoting save as background material. Yet in the end, he’d come through with what Lynn really wanted: a satphone call to Traveler’s Rest, setting up an appointment for her to see the very person whom she’d traveled forty-six light-years to meet.

And so here she was. Lynn paid the driver
C
10, adding a couple of colonials as a tip. He pocketed the money without so much as a word, then reached up to shut the gullwing door; the coupe rose on its skirts and turned around to glide back down Swamp Road toward town. Stepping closer to the gate, Lynn noticed a small metal box on a post next to the gate. Raising its hinged cover, she found an intercom.