Odyssey

INCREDIBLE ACCELERATION 
FOR A CORN SILO

Billy Danger had gone past hitting the skids-now he was freezing to death in a blizzard. So he took shelter in a corn silo that turned out to be a disguised alien starship, and evoke up light years from Earth.

Ravel, a time-traveling agent of Nexx Central; stepped out of his cover identity in 1936 and into utter chaos. The Dinosaur Beach station; hidden millions of years in the past, had been destroyed in a war raging through time. He could trust no one as he raced through the aeons, fighting to insure that mankind would not vanish and never have been at all . . . .
Baird Ulrik, killer-for-hire, terminated only those who deserved it-until the day he was framed and forced to go to a distant planet and kill the man who has been a hero to him ....

Three novels of space adventure, and much more, in a volume of the best by the master of interstellar adventure.

Publishers Note: Odyssey has previously appeared in parts as Galactic Odyssey, Dinosaur Beach, and in the volumes Once There was a Giant, Greylorn and Alien Minds. This is the first combined edition.

Praise for Dinosaur Beach, included in Odyssey:

. . . proves once again that Laumer is a master of both science fiction and mystery." 
—Seattle Times

"Tautly written and endless suspense. An excellent book." 
—VOYA

"Keith Laumer is one of science fiction's most adept creators . . . [this is] a first-rate thriller." 
—Savannah News-Press

Cover Art by Richard Martin

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, March 2002

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

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-3527-7
ISBN-10: 0-7434-3527-3

Copyright © 2002 by the estate of Keith Laumer
Galactic Odyssey (aka Spaceman!) was first serialized in IF magazine (May–July, 1967) and first published in novel form by Berkley in 1967. "A Trip to the City" (aka "It Could Be Anything") was first published in Amazing, January 1963. "Hybrid" was first published in The Magazine of F&SF in November 1961. "Combat Unit" (aka "Dinochrome") was first published in The Magazine of F&SF in November 1960. "The King of the City" was first published in Galaxy in August 1961. "Once There Was a Giant" was first published in The Magazine of F&SF in November 1968. Dinosaur Beach was first published by Scribner's in 1971.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
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DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN . . .

To the untrained eye, a Class-One Karg robot—the only kind ever used in Timesweep work—was undistinguishable from any other citizen. But my eye wasn't untrained. He was the same Karg I'd left in the hotel room back in 1936 with a soft-nosed slug in his head. Now here he was, with no hole in his head, climbing down onto the deck of the ship as neat and cool as if it had all been in fun. I hugged the deck and tried to look hors de combat.

I was just beginning to form a hopeless plan for creeping out of sight when the door I was lying against opened. Tried to open, that is. I was blocking it. Somebody inside gave it a hearty shove and started through.

The Karg's head had turned at the first sound. He whipped up a handsome pearl-mounted, wheel-lock pistol. The explosion was like a bomb. I heard the slug hit; a solid, meaty smack, like a well-hit ball hitting the fielder's glove. The fellow in the door plunged through and went down hard on his face.

The Karg turned back to his men and rapped out an order. The Karg was by the weather rail, calmly stripping the safety foil from a thermex bomb. He dropped it through the open hatch, then scrambled with commendable agility back to his ship. Quite suddenly I was alone, watching the attacking ship recede downwind under full sail.

Smoke billowed from the hatch, with tongues of pale flame in close pursuit. I got a pair of legs under me. A gun lay a yard from the empty hand of the man the Karg had shot. It was a .01 microjet of Nexx manufacture, with a grip that fitted my hand perfectly.

It ought to. It was my gun. I didn't like doing it, but I turned the body over and looked at the face.

It was my face.

(from Dinosaur Beach)

BAEN BOOKS by KEITH LAUMER

Retief!
Odyssey