Who the Door Admits by R. S. Breed
The book
Who the Door Admits
R. S. Breed
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R. S. Breed Founder Author of this book
The Cairn is a provisional thing: a relay at the edge of a damaged region of space, run by a compact of governments none of whom expect it to last, with eight thousand people living in sectors that were supposed to be temporary. Ester Kade administers it without commanding the guns at its own throat. Mara Sould keeps a sector fed out of feedstock, culture and repair. Sesk works the trade side and reads manifests for a living, and the manifest in front of him does not agree with itself.
The culture stream one sector depends on is dying, and the only replacement is aboard a transport that has gone long — a ship returned having lived more time than its route allows, with an exhausted crew, a disputed command and cargo that altered on the way. The cultures may save the starving sector or hazard another. A visiting warship captain who has watched a displaced ship go wrong demands seizure and quarantine, and he is not being unreasonable. Admitting the ship, its displaced people and its altered cargo is a single decision on a closing clock — and the answer settles what the Cairn is: a deal between governments, or a place responsible for whoever reaches its door.
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