Portia Oakeshott, Dinosaur Veterinarian
Earth barely survived the 21st Century. Biotechnological and nuclear terrorism, civil war, famine, and ethnic cleansing killed billions. Thousands fled on warpdrive ships to colonize planets around distant suns.
In the 22nd century, after the United Nations established control over Earth, it opened wormhole links to the distant colonies, to prevent a repeat of the previous century’s chaos on a galactic scale.
Enter operative Stone Chalmers. Spy. Assassin. Instrument maintaining the UN’s order over the settled galaxy.
Opposing him are hostile forces on colony worlds… and within the UN itself.
The purpose of all other combat arms is to put the infantryman in sole possession of the battlefield.
A thousand years from now, while Earth sleeps in virtual reality, three polities—the Confederated Worlds, the Unity, and the Progressive Republic—strive to connect the scattered, terraformed worlds of humankind by artificial wormholes. When they meet, they clash, in a decades-long struggle of arms embroiling the settled galaxy, in which dedication to duty liberates worlds—and oneself.
The Complete Science Fiction Stories of Raymund Eich