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  Liberty is Born in the Czar's American Lands

  Fight for Free Amerika!

  21st century Russian Amerika—a cold, hard land held in chains by a brutal police state. But now the Cossacks have met their match in a rebel army of Athabaskans and outcast creoles. New republic or slavery's chains?

  It will all come down to a gritty and courageous rebel commander and a final courageous stand at the remote fortress known as the Chena Redoubt.

  A debut alternate history of astonishing power and prescience from Alaskan native Stoney Compton!

  "[T]his is a mordant, brilliant book."

  —San Francisco Chronicle

  Cover Art by Kurt Miller

  * * *

  Hardcover

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  First printing, April 2007

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2116-7

  ISBN-10: 1-4165-2116-X

  Copyright© 2007 by Stoney Compton

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

  A Baen Books Original

  Baen publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  http://www.baen.com

  Electronic version by WebWrights

  http://www.webscription.net

  * * *

  Dedication

  To my Mother, Maxine Irene Stout Compton, 1926-1998

  She would have been proud of my accomplishment,

  but embarassed by its content.

  For Colette Marie, my magical and wonderful dancer wife,

  with her, all things are possible.

  For Jess and Mary Herring, finer in-laws are not to be found.

  And for Eric Flint, whose friendship knows no bounds. Thank you.

  Next

  Table of Contents

  A141652116X__c_.htm

  Russian Amerika-ARC

  Advance Reader CopyUnproofed

  Liberty is Born in the Czar's American Lands Fight for Free Amerika!

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2116-7ISBN-10: 1-4165-2116-X

  Dedication

  - Chapter 1

  1

  Clarence Strait, Russian Amerika, July 1987

  - Chapter 2

  2

  Four Days Earlier

  - Chapter 3

  3

  Tolstoi Bay, Prince of Wales Island

  - Chapter 4

  4

  Akku

  - Chapter 5

  5

  Akku

  - Chapter 6

  6

  Outside Construction Camp 4, Mid August, 1987

  - Chapter 7

  7

  Construction Camp 4 on the Tanana River

  - Chapter 8

  8

  Outside Construction Camp 4

  - Chapter 9

  9

  Construction Camp 4

  - Chapter 10

  10

  Construction Camp 4

  - Chapter 11

  11

  On the Tanana River Trail

  - Chapter 12

  12

  On the Tanana River Trail

  - Chapter 13

  13

  On the Delta River Trail

  - Chapter 14

  14

  Toklat on the Toklat River, September 1987

  - Chapter 15

  15

  On the Toklat River, October 1987

  - Chapter 16

  16

  Tetlin Redoubt

  - Chapter 17

  17

  Toklat, November 1987

  - Chapter 18

  18

  Tetlin Redoubt

  - Chapter 19

  19

  Toklat

  - Chapter 20

  20

  Near the Toklat River

  - Chapter 21

  21

  Near the East Fork of the Toklat River

  - Chapter 22

  22

  Near the Toklat River

  - Chapter 23

  23

  Near the Toklat River

  - Chapter 24

  24

  Near the Toklat River

  - Chapter 25

  25

  Toklat, December 1987

  - Chapter 26

  26

  Minto, December 1987

  - Chapter 27

  27

  Tetlin Redoubt, January 1988

  - Chapter 28

  28

  Tetlin Imperial Aerodrome

  - Chapter 29

  29

  Outside Chena Redoubt, January 1988

  - Chapter 30

  30

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 31

  31

  800 Meters Over the Tanana River

  - Chapter 32

  32

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 33

  33

  Outside the Walls of Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 34

  34

  On the Russian-Canada Highway,Near the Tanana River

  - Chapter 35

  35

  Chena

  - Chapter 36

  36

  On the Russia–Canada Highway

  - Chapter 37

  37

  Tetlin Redoubt

  - Chapter 38

  38

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 39

  39

  A Kilometer From Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 40

  40

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 41

  41

  - Chapter 42

  42

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 43

  43

  Inside the Ruins of Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 44

  43

  In the Bowels of Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 45

  45

  - Chapter 46

  46

  - Chapter 47

  47

  - Chapter 48

  48

  - Chapter 49

  49

  West of Chena on the Russia-Canada Highway

  - Chapter 50

  50

  - Chapter 51

  51

  Russia–Canada Highway, Near the Yukon River

  - Chapter 52

  52

  Russia-Canada Highway, East of Tanana

  - Chapter 53

  53

  Tanana on the Yukon, February 1988

  - Chapter 54

  54

  Russia–Canada Highway East of Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 55

  55

  Russia–Canada Highway, East of Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 56

  56

  Chena Redoubt, March 1988

  - Chapter 57

  57

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 58

  58

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 59

  59

  Klahotsa, on the Yukon River

  - Chapter 60

  60

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 61

  61

  Russia–Canada Highway

  - Chapter 62
/>   62

  Columbia, Ohio, Capital of the U.S.A.

  - Chapter 63

  63

  On the Yukon River, Between Old Crow and Tetlin

  - Chapter 64

  64

  San Francisco, Republic of California

  - Chapter 65

  65

  San Francisco, Republic of California

  - Chapter 66

  66

  The Presidio, San Francisco, Republic of California

  - Chapter 67

  67

  East of St. Anthony Redoubt,on the Russia–Canada Highway

  - Chapter 68

  68

  Chena Redoubt, April 1988

  - Chapter 69

  69

  Capitol Building, San Francisco, Republic of California

  - Chapter 70

  70

  St. Anthony Redoubt

  - Chapter 71

  71

  Russia–Canada Highway, East of Chena

  - Chapter 72

  72

  Flight Delta, 5 Kilometers Above British Canada

  - Chapter 73

  73

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 74

  74

  Russia–Canada Highway, East of Chena

  - Chapter 75

  75

  Four Miles from Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 76

  76

  Chena Redoubt

  - Chapter 77

  77

  The Russian Front Line, in the 2nd Battle of Chena

  - Chapter 78

  78

  117th Fighter Squadron Over Russian Amerika

  - Chapter 79

  79

  Behind the Den Front Line

  - Chapter 80

  80

  Rainbow Valley

  - Chapter 81

  81

  Russian Front Line, Second Battle of Chena

  - Chapter 82

  82

  3rd PIR over Russian Amerika

  - Chapter 83

  83

  Rainbow Valley

  - Chapter 84

  84

  Second Battle of Chena

  - Chapter 85

  85

  Rainbow Valley

  - Chapter 86

  86

  Second Battle of Chena

  - Chapter 87

  87

  Rainbow Valley

  - Chapter 88

  88

  Tanana, Den Republik

  - Chapter 89

  89

  - Chapter 90

  90

  Rainbow Valley

  - Chapter 91

  91

  - Chapter 92

  92

  Fort Chena, Den Republik

  - Chapter 93

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Back | Next

  Contents

  1

  Clarence Strait, Russian Amerika, July 1987

  Etolin Island lay to starboard and Prince of Wales Island stood fine on the horizon to port. All thirty meters of Pravda tossed like a cork in a pond. The graying seas broke into spraying foam at two meters and the wind shrilled warning.

  Charter Captain Grigoriy Grigorievich couldn't drop anchor here, nor could he just abandon the wheel and go below to mediate what was sure to turn into rape, at the very least. Both passengers were below in the main cabin. He popped open the hidden compartment on the console and poked the tiny phone into his ear so quickly he hurt himself.

  "No!" Valari said.

  "You will do this with me for two reasons," Karpov said, sounding like a schoolteacher. "First, it will give us both comfort in this storm. Secondly, if you don't do it willingly, I will beat you and take you by force. This is inevitable; besides, you used to enjoy me."

  "I was lying, you swine!" she shrieked. An oddly familiar thonk came over the phone, and Grisha realized that someone had just been hit with a bottle. A large mass fell on the deck.

  He smiled and put the earphone away. Valari was beginning to appeal to him. She raged up the steps, clutching the vodka bottle by its neck. Throwing it over the side, she grabbed the railing, braced herself on the heaving deck, and shouted at him.

  "I wish to make a formal protest to be entered in the log!"

  He gestured with his chin as he clutched the wheel with both hands. "It's right up there," he yelled over the building wind. "Make the entry yourself."

  "But you're the captain."

  "Do you want to take over?"

  Hanging on to the railing with both hands she finally took in the sea around them. Huge swells of slate-colored water veined with submerged foam like fat in a rich man's steak roiled up around them, rising and dropping with unimaginable hydraulic force. Wind ripped loose foam off wave tops and hurled it at the boat where it smacked the hull and topsides like thrown sand.

  Pravda rolled heavily from side to side and pitched up and down as she struggled from one wave to the next. Prince of Wales Island now lay behind a seamless wall of driving water and impenetrable cloud.

  "By the saints, no," she said, nearly inaudible, swaying with the dance of the boat. She raised her voice. "Are we going to get out of this?" Water sluiced across the deck and gurgled into the scuppers as the boat labored through the shrieking elements.

  "Of course!" He forced himself to smile and licked salt spray from his lips.

  "You don't lie very well. Tell me the truth."

  "We're not far from Fort Dionysus. If the storm doesn't get any worse we will make it easily."

  "And if the storm gets worse?"

  He shrugged. "Figure it out for yourself: we won't make it."

  "Shit! This was such a stupid idea! Now we're all going to die. If I get out of this I'm going to get a new job."

  "Why are you here?" Grisha shouted to be heard over the storm.

  She gave him a level look and smiled. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it. The less you know the better off you'll be."

  Grisha repressed the flare of anger.

  Suddenly Karpov, blood streaming down the side of his head, erupted out of the companionway, slid across the soaking deck on his knees, and tackled Valari. She screamed and pounded his head with her fists.

  "What are you doing, you ass?" she screamed at him. "Have you lost your mind?"

  Still on his knees, the beefy man gripped her shirt with one hand, slapped her face with the other. Blood arced from her cut lip. The small sound from deep in her throat jerked open Grisha's gut anger.

  Holding the wheel with one hand, he turned and snap-kicked Karpov as hard as he could in the side of the head. Still clutching Valari, Karpov flew backward and his head smashed into the fishing-gear compartment. The door to the locker swung open as he flopped on the deck, spasming as he tried to retain consciousness.

  Valari squirmed out from under Karpov's twitching mass. "Thank you, Captain Grisha. I think he would have really hurt me this time." She staggered across the shifting deck and hugged him fiercely. He put one arm around her. "I owe you for that one," she said.

  With a gasp she was wrenched out of his grasp and flung across the bridge deck by a seething Karpov. The large man didn't even look back at the woman. He stood glaring at Grisha, rain and blood running down his face as bruises and lumps purpled and thickened.

  "I relieve you of command!" he said with a growl, and swung his massive fist at Grisha's face.

  Grisha released the wheel, ducked under the swing and put all of his weight behind a two-fisted uppercut to Karpov's solar plexus. Air whoofed out of the larger man and he staggered back three steps. Grisha kicked him in the crotch as hard as he could. Karpov doubled over with a moan and fell heavily.

  Grisha grabbed the spinning wheel and gave his attention to straightening the boat, which had immediately turned broadside to the wind. Pravda lurched sideways off a wave top and slid to the bottom of the trough with a crash. He felt thankful the boat hadn't rolled down the liquid incline.

  Seawater cr
ashed into the open bridge, soaking it and everyone on it. Gear spilled out of the fishing locker and slid around the deck. On the other side of the bridge, Valari pulled herself to her feet and clung to the railing, shivering.

  Karpov shook his head and swung from the deck to bury his fist in Grisha's stomach, smashing him against the bulkhead and knocking him breathless. Grisha slid down on the deck, gasping. The boat again put beam to the wind and rolled heavily to starboard, hanging for an impossibly long time before rolling back to port.

  More seawater inundated them. The bridge deck swirled with the increasing water the scuppers couldn't handle.

  "Wheel!" Grisha gasped. "Get the wheel!"

  Karpov threw himself on Grisha and hit him with three hammering blows. The vessel lurched in the moaning gale and crunched into a trough. Crockery shattered in the galley and Grisha twisted his body and threw Karpov off him.

  He rolled over and pushed himself up, tried to hit Karpov but couldn't find a target the few times he could put any strength behind his fist. Valari grabbed the wheel and turned it back and forth uselessly.

  "Into the wind!" he screamed. "Turn into the wi—"

  Karpov's fist drove the oxygen from his lungs again. Grisha crashed back on the deck. The heavy man straddled him and began choking him with both hands.