It was just a dot of lightย .ย .ย .
.ย .ย .ย a dot of light that appeared out of nowhere. Stephanie Bronson thought she might have found a distant supernova. Instead, what sheโd found was something more than a thousand miles across, moving towards the Sun at almost a third the speed of light from the constellation of Lupus, the Wolf. Even more frightening, the objectโcalled Fenrir, after the Norse Wolf of the Worldโs Endโwas slowing down. It was not a comet or even a rogue planet.
It was an alien vessel.
And despite the increasingly detailed and insistent messages of greeting from Earth, it showed no sign of responding. As the world braced itself for the arrival of the immense, frighteningly silent alien visitor, Stephanie held hope that they still might communicate withย Fenrirโuntil something happened that no one had imagined:ย Fenrirย flared and its drive died, leaving the huge ship careening out of control to a fiery death inside the orbit of Venus.
There wasโjust possiblyโa chance for Earth to actโto rescue the now-shipwrecked โFens.โ But even Stephanieโor those trying to stop her and the rescue shipย Carpathiaโcould not imagine that not merely the fate of the aliens, but that of Earth itself, would be decided byย Fenrir.
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Eric Flintย was the creator of theย New York Timesย best-selling Ring of Fire series, the best-selling alternate history series of all time. Beginning withย 1632, Flintโalong with dozens of cowritersโchronicled what happened when the 20th-century town of Grantville, West Virginia, was transported through time and space to 17th-century Europe. In addition, Flint was the author, withย New York Timesย best seller David Weber, of the Crown of Slaves Saga, as well as the Belisarius series with best-selling author David Drake. Flint was the editor ofย Jim Baenโs Universe,ย as well as numerous short story anthologies. Before becoming a writer, Flint worked as a trade union organizer, longshoreman, truck driver, auto worker, steel worker, oil worker, meatpacker, glassblower, and machinist. Eric Flint passed away in 2022.
Ryk E. Spoor, while earning his masters degree in Pittsburgh, became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, the leading publisher of role-playing games and related novels. He now lives in East Greenbush, NY, working as a technical proposal writer for a high-tech R&D firm, and spending his non-writer time with his wife and sons. Spoor is the coauthor withย New York Timesย best seller Eric Flint, of the popular Threshold series of science fiction novels. Spoor's solo novels for Baen includeย Paradigms Lost, Grand Central Arena,ย andย Spheres of Influence. He is also the author of epic fantasyย Phoenix Rising.