Ill Wind

Activist Elizabeth Devane wished for an end to nuclear weapons. Surely, she thought, if they'd known what they were unleashing, the scientists of the Manhattan Project would never have created such a terrible instrument of destruction. But during a protest action, the unthinkable happened: a flash of light, a silent confusion, and Elizabeth awakes to find herself alone in a desolate desert arroyo… and almost fifty years in the past.

June 1944. Los Alamos, New Mexico. While the Allies battle in the Pacific and begin the Normandy invasion in Europe, Nazi Germany deviates from the timeline Elizabeth knows and uses its newfound nuclear arsenal against America. Somehow, someway, Elizabeth has been given the chance to put the genie back in the bottle… yet could she—should she—attempt the greatest sabotage in history?

From Star Trek to Star Wars, from Dune to Foundation, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition. What are the social/religious/environmental/technological implications of living in such a vast society? What happens when expansionist tendencies on a galactic scale come into conflict with the indigenous peoples of other planets, of other races? And what of the issue of communicating across such distances, or the problems caused by relativistic travel? These are just some of the questions and issues that the stories in Federations will take on.

Anderson and Beason are both physicists, which gives their latest plenty of scientific authenticity. So if you know the difference between Feynman diagrams and scattering matrices and don't mind two-dimensional characters, this should be your superconducting cup of tea. Nobel-nominated physicist Georg Dumenco is blasted with radiation while working on a project at Fermilab?the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. What appears to be an accident is, of course, not and Dumenco's beautiful, tempestuous doctor, Trish LeCroix, recruits her former lover, Craig Kreident, crack FBI agent and Scientific American subscriber?and protagonist of Virtual Destruction and Fallout?to investigate before Dumenco succumbs. Intrigues from India, radiation sickness, a few gunshots, and a love triangle point up the importance difference between nuanced complexity and confusing complications.

«Звезда Смерти» Гранд Моффа Таркина подбирается к последнему оплоту Альянса – планете Алдераан. «Исполнитель» Дарта Вейдера настиг курьерский корабль принцессы Лейи Органы. Явно и неизбежно должна грянуть решающая битва между Империей и нарождающейся Новой Республикой!..

Но это где-то далеко-далеко в Галактике… А на маленькой, покрытой горячими песками захолустной планете в грязном космопорте стоит полутемная, провонявшая табаком кантина, где можно выпить кружку-другую-третью любимого пойла от бармена Вухера и послушать лучший джизз-оркестр во Вселенной. Но нельзя расслабляться и забывать, что в этой галактической забегаловке тебя окружают головорезы и карманники, фермеры и солдаты, люди и не-люди, охотники за головами и даже джедаи. И каждый готов рассказать тебе свою историю…

Бен Кеноби, Хэн Соло, Чубакка, Гридо, сестры Тонника, бармен Вухер, Фигрин Д'ан и его оркестр, Момау Надон, шиставанен Лак Шиврак, йав Хетт Нкик и ранат Риджеск, доктор Корнелиус Эвазан и Понда Баба, Муфтак и Кабе, Данник Джерико, БоШек и вообще все, кто присутствовал при упомянутых обстоятельствах в кантоне на задворках !