Worlds of Honor

IT'S A PARTY!
In Honor's Honor, David Weber and
Other Top Science Fiction Writers
Pay a Visit to Honor Harrington's Universe—
and You're Invited!

In just a few short years, David Weber has shot to the forefront of science fiction! The core of his work is Honor Harrington, the toughest, smartest starship captain in the galaxy. Now Weber invites you to join him and his invitees as they explore Honor's universe.

The Host and His Guests:
David Weber himself is on board with three never-before published excursions into Honor's universe. First, he tells how young Honor Harrington first demonstrated the heroic stuff she was made of when she and her treecat Nimitz face the impossible task of rescuing the victims of an avalanche in a sub-zero blizzard....

Weber returns with a chapter in the history of the telepathic treecats, who are far more intelligent than humans realize, and with whom the right human can form a close telepathic bond that can be severed only by death. But in this case, the young human who bonded with a treecat was a Very Important Person. Specifically, she was a Manticoran crown princess and the heir to the throne of the empire....

Roland Green, author of the "Starcruiser Shenandoah" series and the "Peace Company" series, is on board with a hard-hitting account of what happened when Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven went eyeball-to-eyeball over a strategically vital planet....

Linda Evans, "Time Scout" co-author, looks at life among the treecats, before Honor....

Jane Linskold, author of the highly-praised fantasy Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls, tells how Honor's monarch, Elizabeth III, had to learn the hard way what monarchy is all about....

Cover art by David Mattingly

Hardcover
Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, February1999

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weber, David, 1952–

Worlds of Honor / David Weber.
p. cm.
"A Baen Books original"—T.p. verso.
Contents: The stray / Linda Evans — What price dreams? / David Weber — Queen's gambit / Jane Lindskold — The hard way home / David Weber — Deck load strike / Roland J. Green.
ISBN 0-671-57786-7 (hardcover)
1. Science fiction. American. 2. Harrington, Honor (Fictitious character)—Fiction. II. Title

PS648.S3W43 1999 98-47810
813'.0876208—cd21 CIP

ISBN: 0-671-57855-3

Copyright © 1999 by David M. Weber
"The Stray" copyright © 1999 by Linda Evans; "What Price Dreams?" copyright © 1999 by David M. Weber; "Queen's Gambit" copyright © 1999 by Jane Lindskold; "The Hard Way Home" copyright © 1999 by David M. Weber; "Deck Load Strike" copyright © 1999 by Roland J. Green

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
http://www.baen.com

Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com

Thousands Could Tell Her That,
And She Wouldn't Believe It. . . .

"What is it, Stinker?" Honor asked. She knelt beside Nimitz in the gathering twilight, and the treecat sat up on his rearmost limbs, reaching up to pat her chest urgently. His eyes bored into hers like augers, and she knew he was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't quite bring herself to believe the most logical explanation.

Treecats had been used over the years in search and rescue efforts on Sphinx, but not as often as one might have expected, for the range at which they could sense human beings they'd never met before appeared to be limited. There had been instances of `cats who were able to home in on total strangers at distances of up to a hundred or even two hundred meters, but such cases were extremely rare.

They were over three hundred meters beyond the line the SAR teams had calculated as the furthest any of the lift cars might have been carried by the avalanche. The shouts and machinery sounds of the rescue effort were small and lost here, little stronger than the whine and moan of the gathering wind, and Honor looked around trying to see anything that might have brought Nimitz here.

The 'cat made a sound, half-leading and half-commanding, and he made an unmistakable gesture with his right true-hand. A gesture that pointed straight down into the snow.

"Here?"

—from "The Hard Way Home" by David Weber

BAEN BOOKS by DAVID WEBER

Honor Harrington Novels:
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

edited by David Weber:
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor

Mutineers' Moon
The Armageddon Inheritance
Heirs of Empire
Path of the Fury
The Apocalypse Troll
Oath of Swords
The War God's Own

with Steve White:
Insurrection
Crusade
In Death Ground
Shiva Option