Starmind

TO LEAVE EARTH BEHIND . . . FOREVER?

In 2064, Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as resident Shaper of visual effects and music for the world’s most famous zero-gee dance company, at a luxury hotel in High Orbit. But those who go to space for long must remain forever as their bodies adapt irrevocably to the absence of gravity—and Rand’s beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod . . .

And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things—small miracles—are beginning to occur everywhere, on Earth and throughout the entire Solar system. Little things, at first, scarcely noticed . . . but gradually their impact and frequency build. All too soon the human race—and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling stardancers—find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny: Courage Day, an appointment made for them both a million years ago.

In this stunning capstone to the Hugo and Nebula-winning Stardance Saga, mankind meets its greatest challenge since it left the trees—a make-or-break point beyond which literally nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again . . .

“Nobody’s perfect, but Spider comes pretty damned close!” —Ben Bova

“. . . I’d nominate Spider Robinson as the new Robert Heinlein. Like Mr. Heinlein in his prime, Mr. Robinson writes in a crisp, tightly controlled prose about a future that is recognizably descended from today’s world, yet provocatively altered.” —The New York Times

“Robinson is the hottest writer to hit science fiction since Harlan Ellison . . . He can match the master’s

frenetic energy and emotional intensity, arm-break for gut-wrench.” —Los Angeles Times

“Sheer good storytelling . . . imaginative and captivating. . . .” —Publishers Weekly

Cover art by Patrick Turner

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 Baen paperback printing, May 2001

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

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-671-31989-2

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Typeset by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

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

This one's for Tia Marguerite Vasques,
Nana (Agnes Meade),
Tenshin Zenki, and all bodhisattvas,
with gratitude, respect
and love

HIGH-ORBIT HIT MAN

Desperate to stop the assassin, Jay left the tech hole at full thruster power. As he came around the curve he saw the guards he had passed moments earlier, drifting with the air-currents. He wanted to decelerate to a stop and peer cautiously into the tunnel before entering it—but was traveling so fast he'd have had to overshoot it and beat back, and he didn't have time. Instead he threw himself into a power turn and rocketed right into it at max acceleration.

That probably saved his life. The assassin was still in the tunnel, waiting to scrag Jay the moment his head showed. But Jay arrived like a right hook, smashing solidly into him before he could fire.

The assassin was a very good shot. But Jay was a very good dancer—and fortunately the gun was a pulse job rather than a continuous-beam laser.

He twisted, arched, feinted, leaped, contracted, and bolts of shining death missed him by centimeters. But Jay could not hope to close; it was all he could do to stay alive. And any second his luck must run out.

He had time to realize that he was going to die protecting people he did not like or even respect, and then the tunnel had a blowout. A jagged hole appeared in its wall with a phuff, the shriek of escaping air tore at their ears, and pressure began to drop . . .

BAEN BOOKS by SPIDER ROBINSON

The Star Dancers (with Jeanne Robinson)
Starmind (with Jeanne Robinson)
Deathkiller
User Friendly
Lifehouse
By Any Other Name