Two stories from the early years of Andrea Cort, later the heroine of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Emissaries from the Dead. “The Coward’s Option”: On the hostile home-world of the Caith, Andrea Cort has been assigned the case of a murderer who’s been condemned to a horrible death. All legal options have been exhausted, but the Caith offer a rarely-used alternative to execution, one that purports to ensure that the accused will never break the law again. Alas, it’s not so much another chance at life, but deliverance into a hell far worse than mere death… “Tasha’s Fail-Safe”: Once, she and Andrea Cort hated each other. Now, the victim of a savage assassination attempt by a traitor to the Confederacy, she lies in an unresponsive state, the identity of her assailant locked inside her head. Can Andrea penetrate a vital secret she never even knew existed? Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: With Unclean Hands Unseen Demons

ANDREA CORT. War criminal. Genius. Outcast. Heroine. Sent to the home-world of the Zinn, a once-powerful race now on the long path to extinction, she’s expected to sign the approval for a simple prisoner transfer—but why are the Zinn so eager to take custody of an unremarkable human murderer? What brutal crime is being planned against an innocent? What hidden agenda threatens to topple the balance of power? This Nebula-Award nominated novella is the earliest adventure of Andrea Cort, heroine of the Philip K.Dick Award winning novel, EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD. Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: The Coward’s Option (and Tasha’s Fail Safe)Unseen Demons

Two murders have occurred on One One One, an artificial ecosystem created by the universe's dominant AIs to house several engineered species, including a violent, sentient race of sloth-like creatures. Under order from the Diplomatic Corps, Counselor Andrea Cort has come to this cylinder world where an indentured human community hangs suspended high above a poisoned, acid atmosphere. Her assignment is to choose a suitable homicide suspect from among those who have sold their futures to escape existences even worse than this one. And no matter where the trail leads her she must do nothing to implicate the hosts, who hold the power to obliterate humankind in an instant. But Andrea Cort is not about to hold back in her hunt for a killer. For she has nothing to lose and harbors no love for her masters or fellow indentures. And she herself has felt the terrible exhilaration of taking life ...

Andrea Cort became a "war criminal" at the age of eight when an unexplained darkness invaded her soul. Now, decades later, the Devil is calling her. Employed by the Diplomatic Corps but secretly aiding the AI masters of the universe, Counselor Andrea Cort despises the powerful Bettelhines—unrepentant death merchants who have prospered from the annihilation of civilizations. Now curiosity compels her to answer a cryptic summons to their home world, where the only law is Bettelhine law. But a murder attempt greets her arrival at Xana's orbital entry port—and far graver peril awaits aboard the elevator transport meant to carry Andrea to the planet's surface. Trapped miles above Xana—surrounded by suspicious Bettelhines, their slavishly loyal retainers . . . and a corpse liquefied by a 15,000-year-old weapon—Andrea must unmask an assassin or die an equally hideous death. But the true reason for her summons—and sordid secrets weaving through her own dark past—threaten to destroy Andrea Cort more completely than the Claw of God.

Andrea Cort, protagonist of Emissaries From The Dead and The Third Claw of God, returns with her lovers Oscin and Skye Porrinyard for a visit to the distant planet Vlhan, whose towering inhabitants regularly gather for a ritual that is half art-form, half-suicide. Once before, the ritual went wrong, and became a bloody assault on human beings…but that’s history now, and Andrea seeks only information in the ongoing mystery that has come to consume her life. Unfortunately, a young girl has gone missing on Vlhan…and Andrea has arrived just in time for the killing to begin again.

EMIL SANDBURG. Serial killer. His victims were all Catarkhans, specimens of a closed-off sentient race incapable of sensing the great atrocities he committed against them. Prosecuting him by their laws is going to be a problem. Enter ANDREA CORT. Misanthrope. Genius. Controversial figure. Aware even as she takes the case that other alien forces intend to use her past against her, and against humanity. Unaware that its implications will change the course of her life… Presenting the first Andrea Cort adventure, the story that led to the Philip K. Dick Award-Winning novel, Emissaries From the Dead! Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: With Unclean Hands The Coward’s Option (and Tasha’s Fail Safe)