Empire

Reports coming out of Dalnimir are troubling. People opposed to the current planetary and provincial governor are getting mugged, they're getting arrested, some of them are even getting murdered in jail.

It's three months' spacing to get from Julian to Dalnimir Province, in the Earth Sector, on the other side of the Empire. But Ann Turley and Paul Gulliver could use the time out of sight to let their notoriety fade a bit after the Julian Uprising.

But can even Section Six's most successful team figure out who is at fault and set things right?

More to the point, can they survive the attempt?

INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND

So what's up in Empire 14?

There are reports coming out of Dalnimir, a provincial capital in the Earth sector, that political opposition is being actively suppressed by the planetary governor. Planetary governors in the former Democracy of Planets are elected, and the opposition politicians and press to the current governor are having a run of bad luck. Like getting mugged, being jailed on minor offenses and then getting shivved in jail, that sort of thing.

And Section Six is involved?

Yes. Ann Turley and Paul Gulliver are a team after the Julian Uprising, and they go to Dalnimir to find out what's going on. It's four or five thousand light years away - it's all the way across the Empire - so it takes them three months to get there, but they need the time to fade from the news anyway.

They're in disguise this time?

Yes, they are using aliases and have disguised themselves a bit to avoid being linked to the Julian revolution in EMPIRE 13. He's posing as a university professor investigating crime and justice, and she's going as an investigative reporter looking into corruption.

So they get made right away as trouble.

Oh, yes. To get the rats to show up, they diguise themselves as cheese.

What's on the cover? That's not a tank.

No, it's an armored personnel carrier. The Imperial Marines get involved as mounted infantry, and an APC is their ride to work.

What does Dalnimir mean?

It's a corruption for the Russian dal'niy mir, which means 'far world.' It's only two hundred light-years from Earth, but back when it was first settled, that was a long ways, and the trip was full of risks. The planet has no axial tilt, however, so you can grow three crops a year, which was a big attraction.