Tribute

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Lt. Kenyon serves his country and the war effort by censoring the crew’s letters home, even if his shipmates hate him for it. But when the crew begin writing about a ghostly vision—a vision impossible to believe but inadvisable to ignore—he must address the danger facing the ship. And he must make a difficult choice that will affect every last man on board.

Like early Ray Bradbury, Rusch has the ability to switch on a universal dark.

—The Times (London)

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: May 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533756046

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

Book preview

Lt. Kenyon serves his country and the war effort by censoring the crew’s letters home, even if his shipmates hate him for it. But when the crew begin writing about a ghostly vision—a vision impossible to believe but inadvisable to ignore—he must address the danger facing the ship. And he must make a difficult choice that will affect every last man on board.

We were on the Pacific, a long stretch of nowhere, gray upon gray, going on forever.

This was early in the war, our backsides still blistering from the pounding the Japs were giving us. I was a newly minted lieutenant with a job I hated: I was the one who read all the outgoing mail and censored it even before it left the battleship.

I’m sure our boys knew someone read the mail. I’m sure all of them knew it was me. But we didn’t discuss jobs much. I was just one of a handful of ranking paper pushers on a vessel where most guys got their hands dirty. I like to think I was more uncomfortable than they were; after all, I knew more about any of them than they would rightly tell me.

…Judy, hon: dreamed about you three nights running. Finally Sanders, my bunkmate, told me to think purer thoughts—guess I was moaning suggestively in my sleep…

…Martha, remember that night down on Wisconsin Point? Sometimes I think I still got sand in my drawers…

…And, Ma, don’t say nothing to Carl about when I’m coming home. No sense in disappointing the kid. I just have a hunch things ain’t gonna go the way we planned…

Hopes, dreams, and fears, all hand-scrawled, all personal. Sure, the guys knew someone would read them, but even on this, their first mission—maybe especially on this, their first mission—they were scared and homesick, that rush of emotion that led ’em to join up forgotten back at the first day of camp.

I was a more grizzled vet. I joined up in ’39 for a variety of reasons. My folks were gone, my sweetheart married another. I’d left Connecticut angry and lost. There was a