Search Worlds Without End

Retired Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Terrence "Trouble" Tordon come to Savannah via different routes, but what they find is the same. One bully strongman is intent on keeping power no matter what the new rules are for peace. He's got the population cowered by thugs, and tanks at the ready. He expects to win the coming elections handily.

He doesn't expect trouble. Or, in this case, Mrs. Trouble--aka Ruth Tordon--a Marine wife on a mission to find the drug lords that almost killed her and her husband and put them out of business--and she's not about to be stopped by some barely trained roughnecks.

Abandoned by their strongman and desperate in defeat, the heavy armor get ready to roll into town over anybody in their way. But Ray Longknife, Trouble and Ruth are standing in their way...and nothing is going to flatten them.

The war is over. Hooray!

Half the fleet is back in mothballs, but out on the rim of human space, ships are disappearing. Some are merchant ships going about their. business. Others are exploration ships on deep space probes. What's happening to them? Captain Rita Nuu Longknife is ready to take the heavy cruiser Exeter to space and see what's there. She may have a nursery next to the captain's cabin and a two month old baby on her hip, but she's taking a warship out there and nobody better get in her way.

The victory parades are over and half the fleet is back in mothballs. The Navies better start getting them back in Commission! Rita Longknife, commander of the heavy cruiser Exeter, has proof. Proof that there is something else out there. Proof we are not alone in the galaxy. Aboard her ship is evidence that we have blown up an alien ship, and they have blown up one of ours. So far, contact with the aliens is being made by pirates, the worst scum humanity has. How do the right people take over making contact? Is there already too much bad blood between us? Have we already blown first contact?

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

She has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove in the long-running struggle among her powerful family, a highly defensive - and offensive - Earth, and the hundreds of warring colonies. Then an ill-conceived attack brings the war close to home, putting Kris' life on the line. Now she has only one choice: certain death on the front lines of rim space - or mutiny.

Kris Longknife had no choice about growing up rich and pampered. When she did have a choice, she joined the Marines. But now, a friend needs help halfway across the galaxy - and with a military heritage coursing through her blood, it's time for Kris Longknife to be a hero. Kris boards the next ship to Turantic, the last place her friend was seen alive. But there's more to the rescue than meets the eye.

Turantic is not only the most twisted hellhole in the galaxy, but it's also under quarantine because of a deadly plague. And after a sudden, suspicious loss of communication with the outside world, Kris realizes the length some enemies will go to for a life-threatening bait-and-trap. But she is willing to go even further - and deeper into Turantic's secrets - to survive.

Born into a family of wealth and political power, Kris Longknife turned her back on high society and followed a different family tradition by joining the Marines. But now she finds herself relieved of duty. She's gotten in the way of someone's agenda - to bring down her father, the Prime Minister of Wardhaven.

Now, with the fleet off on a propaganda mission, Wardhaven is left vulnerable to enemy warships that establish orbit around the planet demanding surrender. With the remnants of the fleet ordered to stand down, Kris declares herself Commander-in-Chief and plans a desperate gambit to defend her world.

Commandeering every spaceworthy vessel she can get her hands on and recruiting every able-bodied person willing to risk their life, Kris leads the most important mission of her career - and it may be her last.

Kris Longknife is back - and ready for battle.

Kris has been given her first independent command in the very remote system of Chance, an assignment that's as much exile as promotion. But Kris isn't on the job long when she captures pirates hiding the location of an uncharted and unpopulated planet of miraculous technology.

You can't keep a good woman down-Kris Longknife returns.

Once again Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet New Eden. And someone is taking advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris.

Kris Longknife has been assigned to The Wasp, the best warship beyond the Rim of Human Space. But while hunting for pirates, Kris stumbles upon something. It's a plan to kill one of the members of the aristocratic Peterwald family--and the would-be killers are setting her up as the assassin.

Kris Longknife encounters some peaceful aliens who have come to warn humanity of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path-a path now leading directly toward the human worlds.

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage, and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the rim of human space-without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. But when slavers kidnap a twelve-year-old girl, Kris's mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests-well, to hell with politics.

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a reconnaissance mission of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find a hostile alien starship. Now, she must determine the extent of the alien threat-and whether to start an interstellar war...

Having used unorthodox methods to save a world--and every sentient being on it--Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife is wanted across the galaxy for crimes against humanity. For her own safety, she's been assigned to a backwater planet where her Fast Patrol Squadron 127 enforces immigration control and smuggler interdiction.

But Kris is a Longknife, and nothing can stop her from getting back to the center of things--not when all hell is breaking loose. Now she's on the run, hunted by both military and civilian authorities--and since the civilian authorities happen to be her immediate family, Kris soon finds herself homeless, broke, and on trial for her life on an alien world...

Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass--and to demonstrate that, they've promoted her to Admiral. Now her mission is to find the home base of the space pirates who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy.

But no mission is ever simple when your name is Longknife. And this time the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself--reluctantly--having to make some command decisions about her future...

There's no rest for a Longknife--even if you're a newlywed. Vice Admiral Kris Longknife's honeymoon gets cancelled when she hears that the space raider's home world may have been discovered. Finding where the raiders came from could be the key to saving humanity. If only uncovering their secrets was that easy...

As Kris returns home, she ends up tangling with a mutinous crew determined to take off on their own. The dissident group leads Kris straight into a new mess--a system filled with strange, deadly enemies poised to wipe another sentient civilization out of existence. Kris and her squadron are ready to prevent total annihilation, but the mutineers have other plans...

The aliens attacking the planetary system of Alwa are an enemy unlike any Admiral Kris Longknife has ever encountered before. She doesn't know who they are, only that they worship a being known as the Enlightened One and are unafraid to sacrifice themselves against her fleet.

But Kris faces more than just the fanatical behavior of an alien armada. A saboteur has infiltrated the military's medical facility and unleashed an epidemic that has spread throughout the fleet without warning.

Seventy-two career military women are down with something not even the aliens could do to them--including Admiral Kris Longknife...

Despite her role as a fleet Admiral and protector of a planetary system, Kris is still beholden to her great grandfather King Raymond's commands. She has been personally selected for a mission that, should she succeed, will save millions of lives.

The Peterwald Empire is in the midst of civil war. On one side is the tyrannical Empress, on the other is the last person Kris ever wants to see again--Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald. Due to their shared history, the Emperor believes Kris can mediate between the factions and bring about peace.

But before Kris even begins her mission, she survives multiple assassination attempts on her family home world. Someone doesn't want her interfering in the Empire's affairs. Kris immediately suspects Vicky or the Empress, only to learn that it could also be a traitor among her own people...

Kris Longknife has discovered that this desk job is not at all what she expected. Being desk bound hasn't even decreased the number of assassination attempts! Then Kris gets home to find her two kids playing with an Iteeche. Ron has come back to human space with a request. Should Kris honor it? Can she finally get some straight answers for her Grampa Ray, King Raymond to most? Does she risk taking the kids into a situation with a whole lot of unanswered questions? Oh, and what can go wrong? Kris know something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong.

Admiral Kris Longknife should have known the job offer was too good. Really, she knew by now that what was too good to be true really, really isn't. Still, she jumped at the chance to be the first human emissary to the Iteeche Empire.

Only when she got there, and met the Emperor, a teenage kid swamped by his throne, did Kris find out that there was a little civil war going on in the Iteeche Empire. The loyal forces were losing, and they needed the best fighting admiral they could get. So they got Kris Longknife.

Now Kris is sweating out collecting a fighting force -- that won't make her their first target. Now she's trying to figure out how to fight ships identical to hers, that outnumber her four to one or worse. Oh, and she's got to keep the merchant princes in her embassy from making a mess of everything.

A whole lot of people are hoping this Longknife can pull a grizzly bear out of her hat. A whole lot of other Iteeche are hoping the bear takes off her arm.

Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife is up to her ears in problems... again.

While summoned to the Imperial Iteeche Court to be humanity's Emissary, it turns out that what the Iteeche really want is a fighting admiral!

You see, they've got this huge civil war going, and the Imperial side isn't doing so well. Kris now has command of the entire Imperial Combined Fleet. Sort of.

The Iteeche Empire has a ten-thousand-year long history. There is nothing that won't say, "We've always done it that way," pointing to a track record lasting for thousands of years. Even when Kris reminds them they're losing, many have a hard time changing.

Many Iteeche also wonder if letting a human win this war for them isn't losing everything already.
Kris managed to win a defensive battle with a scratch force. Now she's thrown together a larger force and is ready to take the fight to the rebels.

It's full speed ahead with Kris Longknife: Commanding.

BEAUTY AND THE BATTLEFIELD

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed--her brother, her father's favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald's longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.

Now Ensign Vicky Peterwald is part of a whole new world, where use of her ample charms will not lead to advancement. But her father is the Emperor, and what he wants he gets. What he wants is for Vicky to learn to be efficiently ruthless and deadly.

Though the lessons are hard learned, Vicky masters them--with help from an unexpected source: Kris Longknife.

Seeking revenge for her brother's death, Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald underwent an unlikely transformation--from pampered heir to naval lieutenant. Now a new challenge looms: Vicky will need to use both her military and political ranks to rebuild war-torn planets, planets ruined both by the Peterwald Empire and by Kris Longknife's revolutionary quests.

But not everyone shares Vicky's goals. When the death-before-dishonor code of the Navy meets the anything-goes-to-win motto of the Imperial family, Vicky must confront, outwit, and conquer both revolutionaries and her own family to stifle galactic disorder.

And nothing stops a Grand Duchess, on or off the field.

Vicky Peterwald is no longer just the heir apparent to an imperial dynasty. She survived naval training and proved her mettle in combat to help the starving people of the ravaged world of St. Petersburg. Now, she is truly a Grand Duchess, leading a growing battle fleet in a rebellion against the tyranny of her stepmother, the Empress.

Determined to stop her spoiled stepdaughter's betrayal from upsetting the balance of power within the Peterwald Empire, the Empress is leading her own armada to St. Petersburg, intent on killing Vicky and every soul on the planet that gave her refuge.

But Vicky is her father's daughter, and it would be a grave mistake to underestimate her...