Anthology of short stories; one about killer whales in space, another about a bodyguard on a desolate colony

Question

I am looking for a book that I borrowed from the library from the mid to late 90s. It featured a number of science fiction short stories from different authors. The only story I am able to remember goes something like this:

A man who has automatic self-defense skills becomes a bodyguard for money. He along with a female are put on a desolate colony. In this colony, you must earn money to gain wealth and power to get out of the slums. Near the end of the story, the female kills the male. At the end of the story, it is shown that the female attained this wealth and power and became a "grandioso" (I think a term in the story). However, she spread her wealth too far and thin and was killed by a space mine.

Besides that, I remember the cover containing several killer whales swimming through space. I also remember this being the 3rd edition of this book. Hopefully this is enough to go on.

Answer 1

Matthew - I do not know if, more than 10 years after this post, you will return. I hope you do because this query has been stuck in a my brain far too long. I mean, a sci fi book with a cover displaying killer whales in space?! That's simply bonkers. And, would, I assumed, prove easy to find. It was not.

I don't actually know if this is truly the book you were looking for but publication dates fit (you suggested late 90s, this is 2001), it is a collection of short stories (I have not read it but one does involve terraforming), and it has the cover exactly as you described.

My I present: Geoffrey Landis' Impact Parameter and Other Quantum Realities (2001).