Appears in Beyond Amargosa
Warped is the second entry in the Beyond Amargosa Arc of the Compact Universe, a sequence of stories that explores events unfolding across the Compact during the Gelt occupation of Amargosa. Set concurrently with the The Amargosa Trilogy, Warped shifts focus to the Compact Navy and the secretive warp drive program, revealing the technological and political groundwork being laid far from the front lines.
The story follows Captain Hideki Okada, a disgruntled but brilliant former officer living in quiet retirement on Thule. Okada is forcibly recalled to duty by Cybercommand operatives Weiss and Schulte, under the authority of Vice Admiral Eileen Burke, to take command of the Challenger—a Zephyr-class cruiser retrofitted with a prototype warp drive.
Joined by his former engineer, the lewd but genius Peter Lancaster, Okada must overcome sabotage-by-neglect, bureaucratic interference, and the heavy hand of Cybercommand. With the support of a loyal crew and Burke’s quiet backing, he leads the Challenger on the Compact’s first successful interstellar warp flight—from Tian to Earth—proving that faster-than-light travel is possible without Projection Drives or hypergates.
The novella concludes with the political aftermath of the flight: Rear Admiral Quentin Austin has been promoted and installed as the head of the warp program—a transparent effort to remove him from frontline investigations. Okada and Lancaster return to a Navy now with true FTL travel in its arsenal as it meets the growing threat from the Gelt.