Coyote Rising

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Coyote Rising

An
Ace
Book / published by arrangement with the author

All rights reserved.

Copyright ©
2004
by
Allen M. Steele

This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

For information address:

The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is
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ISBN:
0-7865-5557-2

AN
ACE
BOOK®

Ace
Books first published by The Ace Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

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Electronic edition: February, 2005

Ace books by Allen M. Steel

ORBITAL DECAY

CLARKE COUNTY, SPACE

LUNAR DESCENT

LABYRINTH OF NIGHT

THE JERICHO ITERATION

THE TRANQUILLITY ALTERNATIVE

OCEANSPACE

CHRONOSPACE

COYOTE

COYOTE RISING

for
Ginjer Buchanan
 . . .
who was present at the creation of the world

New Florida Colonists

Matriarch Luisa Hernandez—colonial governor

Savant Manuel Castro—lieutenant governor

Allegra DiSilvio—composer

Benjamin Harlan—drifter

James Alonzo Garcia—architect

L
EVIN FAMILY

Cecelia “Sissy” Levin
—
chicken farmer, original colonist

Chris Levin
—
Chief Proctor, Cecelia’s son

T
HOMPSON FAMILY

Clark Thompson
—
mayor, Thompson’s Landing

Molly Thompson
—
wife

Lars Thompson
—
nephew (older)

Garth Thompson
—
nephew (younger)

C
HURCH OF
U
NIVERSAL
T
RANSFORMATION

Rev. Zoltan Shirow
—
founder and pastor

Greer, Renaldo, Doria, Ian, Byron, Clarice, Ernst, Angela, Boris, Jim, Dex, and others
—
church members

Klon Newall—construction foreman

Frederic LaRoux–geologist

Enrique Constanza—electronics engineer

Jaime Hodge—field worker

Lonnie Dielman—Thompson’s Ferry militia

Juanita Morales—Thompson’s Ferry militia

Tomas Conseco—child

Midland colonists

Robert E. Lee—Mayor of Defiance; former commanding officer, URSS
Alabama

Dana Monroe—Lee’s partner; former
Alabama
chief engineer

M
ONTERO FAMILY
:

Carlos Montero (aka “Rigil Kent”)
—
resistance leader

Wendy Gunther
—
Carlos’s wife

Susan Gunther
—
Wendy and Carlos’s daughter

Maria Montero
—
Carlos’s sister, resistance fighter

D
REYFUS FAMILY
:

Jack Dreyfus
—
former
Alabama
engineer

Lisa Dreyfus
—
wife

Barry Dreyfus
—
son; resistance fighter

Ted LeMare—former
Alabama
ensign

Jean Swenson—former
Alabama
communications officer

Tom Shapiro—former
Alabama
first officer

Kim Newell—former
Alabama
shuttle pilot

Kuniko Okada—chief physician

Henry Johnson—astrophysicist

Union Guard/Union Astronautica

Capt. Fernando Baptiste—commanding officer, WHSS
Spirit of Social Collectivism Carried to the Stars

Savant Gregor Hull—member, Council of Savants

Patriarch Leonardo Samoza—chief of operations, Copernicus Centre

Capt. Ramon Lopez—squad leader

Lt. Bon Cortez—expedition member

Warrant Officer Giselle Acosta

Sgt. Arthur Cartman

PROLOGUE

M
ARE
I
MBRIUM
, L
UNA
—2.24.2260

“Have you ever been to Earth?”

At first, Fernando Baptiste didn’t realize he was being spoken to; his attention was on the lunar landscape passing by the maglev. Mare Imbrium was a grey, flat wasteland pitted here and there by ancient impact craters. Far away, he could make out the hulking forms of He combines, 3 massive crawlers that scooped up powdery regolith and seined it for volatiles. It was the middle of the Moon’s two-week day; stark sunlight, polarized by the train windows, cast long shadows from the high peaks of the Apienne Mountains.

Every seat was taken, but it was late, and nearly everyone was asleep; the lights were turned down low, and only the steward moved down the narrow aisle. The young boy sitting next to Fernando, though, was awake. He had the straight black hair and angular features of someone of Hispanic ancestry, but his face had the sallow complexion of a child born and raised on the Moon. No more than twelve or thirteen, Baptiste guessed. A book lay open in his lap, a luminescent holo of a dinosaur displayed on its screen. He wasn’t looking at it, but rather at Baptiste himself.

“Sure,” he said, quietly so as not to disturb anyone dozing around them. “Not recently, but I was born there. In a small town in Belize.”

The boy nodded once, then stared down at his book. Baptiste watched as he idly touched the upper right corner of the page; the tyrannosaur took a couple of steps forward, raised its head, and bellowed silently. Unimpressed, the boy touched the side of the book; the screen changed, and another Jurassic animal appeared. Baptiste didn’t know much about dinosaurs, so he couldn’t identify this one.

“Have you ever been there?” he asked. “To Earth, I mean.”

The boy shook his head. He didn’t say anything, yet Baptiste noticed the way his eyes shifted to the insignia on his charcoal black uniform. Most Selenians were reticent in the presence of a Union Astronautica officer, but this child wasn’t quite old enough to be intimidated. He was curious about the spacer sitting beside him, yet he had probably been taught not to bother strangers.

Baptiste gazed again out the window. For the first time, he noticed Earth hovering above the horizon. Perhaps that was what had prompted the boy’s question: the sight of the cloudy blue-green orb, juxtaposed with the UA officer next to him. He had satisfied the boy’s curiosity, and perhaps he should let it go at that, yet it had been a long ride from Archimedes, where he’d boarded the train, and it was probably another half hour or so until they pulled into Copernicus Centre, his final destination. He’d slept for most of the trip, and he wasn’t ready to pull out his own book and study the material he’d been sent. Perhaps a little light conversation might take the edge off things. Besides, what harm could come from talking to a child . . . ?

“I haven’t been to Earth lately,” he said, “but I know of a place that’s very much like it.”

The boy had just turned another page in his book; this seemingly offhand remark caught his attention. “What do you mean? There’s nowhere like . . .” Then he frowned. “Oh . . . Tranquillity Centre. My father once took me there on holiday. It’s not the same.”

“You’re right.” Baptiste smiled. “It’s not the same. The domes are just giant gardens, with manicured trees and tame animals no more threatening than a teb . . . and a young man like you has outgrown tebs, haven’t you.” The boy grinned; he was past the age of needing a teddy bear as a playmate, even if he wasn’t old enough to appreciate the miracle of forests growing beneath vast domes on the Moon. Baptiste crossed his arms and lowered his voice. “No, I’m talking about something entirely different . . . a world far away from here, so far away that, if you were to leave for it today, by the time you arrived, everyone you left behind would be very old, perhaps even dead.”