Shadow of Freedom

Shadow of Freedom David Weber

BAEN BOOKS BY DAVID WEBER

HONORVERSE 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

Ashes of Victory

War of Honor

At All Costs

Mission of Honor

Crown of Slaves (with Eric Flint)

Torch of Freedom (with Eric Flint)

The Shadow of Saganami

Storm from the Shadows

A Rising Thunder

HONORVERSE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS:

A Beautiful Friendship

Fire Season, with Jane Lindskold

HONORVERSE ANTHOLOGIES:

More than Honor

Worlds of Honor

Changer of Worlds

The Service of the Sword

In Fire Forged

EMPIRE FROM THE ASHES:

Mutineers’ Moon

The Armageddon Inheritance

Heirs of Empire

Empire from the Ashes (omnibus)

WAR GOD:

Oath of Swords

The War God’s Own

Wind Rider’s Oath

War Maid’s Choice

WITH JOHN RINGO:

March Upcountry

March to the Sea

March to the Stars

We Few

Path of the Fury

In Fury Born

The Apocalypse Troll

The Excalibur Alternative

WITH STEVE WHITE:

Insurrection

Crusade

In Death Ground

The Shiva Option

The Stars At War

The Stars At War II

WITH ERIC FLINT:

1633

1634: The Baltic War

WITH LINDA EVANS:

Hell’s Gate

Hell Hath No Fury

For a complete listing of Baen titles by David Weber, please go to www.baen.com.

Shadow of Freedom

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.

Copyright © 2013 by Words of Weber, Inc.

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

www.baen.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-4516-3869-1

Cover art by David Mattingly

First printing, March 2013

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

t/k

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

February 1922 Post Diaspora

“It’ll be easier the next time…and there will be a next time. There always is.”

—Frinkelo Osborne,

Office of Frontier Security,

Loomis System.

Chapter One

The wingless, saucer-like drone drifted through the wet, misty night on silent counter gravity. The fine droplets of rain sifted down in filmy curtains that reeked of burned wood and hydrocarbons and left a greasy sensation on the skin. Despite the rainfall, fires crackled noisily here and there, consuming heaps of wreckage which had once been homes, adding their own smoke and soot to the atmosphere. A faint, distant mutter of thunder rolled through the overcast night, though whether it was natural or man-made was difficult to say.

The drone paused, motionless, blacker than the night about it, its rain-slick, light-absorbent coat sucking in the photons from the smudgy fires which might otherwise have reflected from it. The turret mounted on its bottom rotated smoothly, turning sensors and lenses towards whatever had attracted its attention. Wind sighed wearily in the branches of sugar pine, crab poplar, and imported Terran white pine and hickory, something shifted in one of the piles of rubble, throwing up sparks and cinders. A burning rafter burned through and collapsed and water dripped from rain-heavy limbs with the patient, uncaring persistence of nature, but otherwise all was still, silent.

The drone considered the sensor data coming to it, decided it was worth consideration by higher authority, and uploaded it to the communications satellite and its operator in far distant Elgin City. Then it waited.

The silence, the rain, and the wind continued. The fires hissed as heavier drops fell into their white and red hearts. And then—