Falling Free

[An independent novel in the Vorkosigan universe.] In an attempt to corner the market on labor contracts across the galaxy, the medical research corporation GalacTech bio-engineers a thousand human embryos into a new race of humans perfectly suited to a weightless environment. In addition to many carefully engineered internal adjustments for a life without gravity, the Quaddies' most visible improvement is the substitution of legs for an additional pair of arms. Expert space welder and engineer Leo Graf is brought to the habitat to teach his craft to the Quaddies, but when a rival company's technological advances makes them obsolete, GalacTech makes plans to drop the project and condemn its "post-fetal tissue" property to extinction. Desperate to save his students, Graf changes his classes in space construction to a short course on freedom in free fall. Prometheus Award Nominee, Hugo Award Nominee, Nebula Award Winner, Locus Poll Award Nominee