Misfits (11 page)

Brunner blinked. "Work?"

"Yeah, work. 'Cause, see, where we're going,
we're gonna need a weatherman, and I want to hire the best there
is. I'll tell you right out, the weather ain't as interesting as
Klamath's, but we're figuring to set satellites, warm the place up.
Going to need some studies done, and--…"

Did he want work? he asked himself, and
almost laughed. His fingers itched for a portable, so that he could
begin making notes. And yet--He lifted his head, watching his delm
speaking with Korval.

"Your choice, Weatherman," she murmured, and
he did laugh, then, loudly enough that Lysta turned to stare. "And
look, I mean we can get you going today, if you want. But really,
just say no if you don't think it'd be a fit. You'll have to work
with some pretty strange folks, like us, and some mercs, and some
Scouts, too."

He raised a hand a moment, and held the key
she'd brought back to him to eye level.

"I think, I need to know something first.
How is it that your name was never on the station rescue list?"

"Well," she said in Terran, "I got rid of
that gun that was holding us down and then--… I took some damage.
When they brought me up, they didn't bring me in station. While the
crews were getting Jack and the Scout out of the brig they just
took me right to the Scout's doc. I really did mean to bring that
thing right back to you!"

He sighed and it turned into a slow smile
and a gentle laugh. "Scouts, mercs, strange people, Redhead and her
partner. And odd weather--…"

Redhead bit her lip as he paused, vaguely
hearing something his delm was saying to Korval about how
Solcintra's theater could be improved if new plays were sometimes
brought to stage--…

"Yes," he said, and bowed to her. "Indeed, I
would very much like to have work. And very much, I expect it will
be a fit."

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
are the celebrated co-authors of the best-selling Liaden Universe®
series and have been writing together since the first "Kinzel"
stories hit
Fantasy Book
in the early 1980s. They started the first Liaden
story in 1984 and have published a dozen novels and several dozen
short works in that series alone.

Along the way they've become fan favorites
at SF conventions from California, USA to Fredericton, Canada, with
Guest of Honor and Special Guest appearances at PenguiCon, COSine,
AlbaCon, Trinoc*con, ConDuit, MarsCon, ShevaCon, BaltiCon,
PortConMaine, SiliCon, Second Life Library, and elsewhere. Upcoming
Guest of Honor apperances include Oasis 23 in Orlando, Florida in
May 2010 and DucKon 19 in Napierville, Illinois in June 2010.

They count Baen, Del Rey,
Meisha Merlin, Ace Books, Phobos, and Buzzy Multimedia among their
English language publishers and have several foreign language
publishers as well. Their short fiction, written both jointly and
singly, has appeared in
Absolute
Magnitude, Catfantastic, Dreams of Decadence, Fantasy Book, Such a
Pretty Face, 3SF
, and several incarnations
of
Amazing
.

Their work has enjoyed a
number of award nominations, with
Scout's
Progress
being selected for the Prism Award
for Best Futuristic Romance of 2001 and
Local Custom
finishing second for the
same award.
Local Custom
was published by Buzzy Multimedia as an audio book
read by Michael Shanks --Stargate's Daniel.
Balance of Trade
, appeared in
hardcover in February 2004 and hit Amazon.com genre bestseller
lists before going on to win the Hal Clement Award as Best YA
Science fiction for the year.

Their most recent Liaden
novel is
Fledgling
, published in September of 2009, with
Saltation
(sequel to
Fledgling
) and
Mouse and Dragon
(sequel
to
Scout's Progress
) due in 2010. Baen will also be reprinting the original ten
Liaden novels in four omnibus editions starting in 2010. The
authors have several other works in progress.

Steve was Founding Curator of Science
Fiction for the University of Maryland's SF Research Collection as
well as Vice Chair of the Baltimore in 80 WorldCon bid, while
Sharon has been Executive Director, Vice President, and President
of the Science Fiction Writers of America; together they were BPLAN
Virtuals, an ebook publisher in the late 1980s. These backgrounds
give them a unique perspective on the science fiction field.