The Emissary book 1: Intro

 

 

(Updated, Nov 2023) Here's a sneak peek at chapter 1, book 1 of the unpublished Emissary trilogy. Book 1 is complete (currently seeking representation). Books 2 and 3 were complete, but my beta readers love a subplot I introduced into book 1 so much that I am now gleefully threading that same subplot through books 2 and 3: The lost spaceship power generator has a point of view. It does not want to blow up, and is trying to communicate with its captors for help.

I think my beta readers are right. I'm loving this subplot.

 

(Updated, Feb 2024: I am undergoing a massive Word Reduction Plan on book 1 and loving it. I'm halfway through book 1 and have happily removed about 7,000 words. I just removed 150 words from this chapter.)

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One

November 10, 1975

somewhere over Lake Superior

 

Historians chronicle that the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald took the lives of twenty-nine brave men. They are wrong. There was one more.

Such an omission might seem negligent. But this unchronicled man would never have wanted Earth’s historians to know that he existed. 

 

As fast as he dared, as fast as was safe, the Emissary drove his craft down through Earth’s atmosphere. Under ordinary conditions, the sheer speed would have exhilarated him. These conditions were not ordinary. Too much lay at stake.

Even at this altitude, he didn’t need his instruments to tell him that two-thousand meters below him on the lake, something extraordinary was happening. Vibrations increased steadily, then stabilized. Feeling his shoulders stiffen, he willed them to relax. 

Plunging past more thick, soggy clouds, the lake again became visible. It spread out, a dark plane below him. Alert to his instruments, he maintained a prudent sixty meters between his craft and the riotous waves. The storm’s violence jolted through his many layers of trained calm. This was not how he remembered Lake Superior. He’d never seen anything like this before.

He glanced at his display. How much time?

A clear sphere slightly bigger than his fist drew his attention away from the controls. The memento ball had perched beside his display for years, but the three familiar figures inside it grabbed his focus. He was less interested in viewing himself than his wife and son. They felt so far away. 

He would see them soon. Or would he?

His arms prickled. He worked to shake off a sickening dread that had sprung from nowhere. His training kicked in. The uncertainties that surfaced with these missions naturally gave rise to catastrophic thoughts. Unhelpful thoughts. Still, he stared at his family, unable to look away. 

In the recording, they stood on a beach. Lake Michigan. A different lake, a much calmer lake, not so far from this one. A different, calmer version of himself grinned out from the ball. His wife stood beside him, her smile matching his, posing for the scanner. Oblivious to the recorder, little Koyper daydreamed in his arms. 

He was lifting his son up so that he might take in the vastness of the lake. It wasn’t something they could experience on the Colony. Koyper, however, was clearly distracted with his new toy, pairing the miniature spacecraft with the sky beyond and waving it over their heads. Red instead of blue, but other than that, a good replica of the craft he was currently piloting. Koyper had begged for a red one.

A bittersweet twinge struck him. Koyper still wanted to be a pilot. Still, knowing the danger. He shook his head to focus and cursed. 

“Psiakrew!” 

He caught himself. Tisked. His native Polish would not work here. English only now. 

On the display, rows of paired discs glowed as their patterns and colors shifted. Without assistance from the Tap, the array would mean nothing to most humans. Interpreting them had taken him a lifetime of training. 

He leaned forward. The shapes had grown jagged, the colors intensified. He frowned at their messages. This storm was unusual. He turned on the searchlights. Now, blurred by the driving rain, long shafts of light undulated over the waves.

He had traveled such a long way. He breathed deeply and slowly, recalling all his training to remain calm and focused. He had to reach them, before it was too late.

 

***

 

Captain Ernest McSorely clenched his fists, his knuckles stiff with cold. He had ordered the course change several hours ago and they were now headed for the Canadian coast. They had checked down their speed considerably, another precaution. Detroit could wait for their ore. The lives of twenty-eight men came first. 

He had radioed the news of their detour to their sister ship. We’re holding our own, he had reassured them. Saying those words, he had allowed himself to feel a small degree of comfort knowing The Anderson trailed them ten miles back. He had thought then that they would make it. 

Now things looked different.

Loaded with twenty-six-thousand tons of taconite iron ore, the 729-foot freighter leaned hard to port. One ballast pump was down. The remaining two struggled to keep up, purging out Superior’s ice water. With the radar down, they were sailing blind.

He scowled through the pilot house window, rubbing the stubble on his jaw. 

Muted by the scream of wind, shouts from his crew below floated to his ears. His latest command echoed in his head. Don’t allow nobody on deck.

Thirty-foot waves. Green walls of water rising, slamming at his freighter, making her shudder under his feet. He dragged his eyes away from the water-streaked glass to his wheelman. 

Swaying beside the chart desk, John looked up. The wheelman’s eyes bulged as they met his own. John’s mouth opened, closed on whatever thought he was about to express. He quickly cast his gaze back to the charts. Made another correction at the helm.

McSorely understood that look. Both of them had seen many seas. None like this. With forty years navigating some of the roughest water on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, this was one for the record books. The hopeful words he had spoken days ago came back, making his stomach clench. One last haul, then I’m free.

He’d been counting the days to retire, after this one final, risky run. He knew the dangers. Respected the old legend. He knew how November roused the lake’s slumbering witch. 

Now, fully risen, Superior’s witch raged. In a terrifying demonstration of raw power, she railed against his plan to escape her. 

He staggered over to join John at the chart table. John was trying to say something. Screeching wind blotted out his words. 

He shook his head. Pointed at his ear. 

John leaned in. Tried again, shouting. 

“Ever seen…SEAS…like THIS?” 

John’s real question, unspoken, hung between them. What were the right words? A sting of anguish burned through his core. All of the men. All of their families.

 John knew him. He would know if he tried to hide the truth. 

McSorely jerked his head, a tight shake. “No!”  

John’s mouth hardened. Comprehension spread across his face. 

He shot John a stiff smile that he didn’t feel. “Hey!” He slapped a hand on the man’s back. “Buck up!” 

It was hard to tell whether his words offered any comfort. John’s shoulders relaxed, though perhaps only from exhaustion.

 

***

 

The Emissary blinked at the display and a small cry of relief escaped him. “Uff!”

The signal grew. Too strong to be an artifact. It had to be them.

“Ojejku.” He caught himself again. English, now. “Yes! I see you. Good!”

He changed course to intercept. But these waves, this wind. He had never navigated anything like this before. In all the simulations, he had never tested his piloting against waves like this, against wind like this. 

A flutter of worry made him take and release a deep breath. His craft possessed a few zones that, under rare circumstances, were vulnerable to sudden pressure, especially once the canopy was open. He considered these zones now. If he wasn’t careful, his craft could burst like an overripe sliwki.

With fresh significance, that other lake he had just viewed in his memento ball flashed to mind. Lake Michigan, where the nearest emergency rendezvous site sat concealed on the shores of Door County, not so far from here. Should anything go wrong, his ship would autopilot him there. Just one of so many safety measures. He gave his head a shake and swept the thought from his mind. 

He slowed, angled his craft carefully, and descended over the freighter. 

 

***

 

The cabin windows began vibrating. Trembling at first, then building to a quaking chatter. McSorely frowned at John, who threw him a confused look back. 

The cabin floor was shuddering now, resonating from some loud bass hum. Another ballast pump down? 

He froze. Something blue, huge, swept along the cabin view from starboard. He rocked back and caught his breath. 

It made no sense. Defying gravity, obscuring much of the stormy sky beyond, a shiny blue sphere hovered. At least as large as the pilot house cabin, it hung in midair, directly over the deck. 

He rubbed his eyes. His mind raced, searching for some explanation.  

He rushed to the window, palming the glass. Then shot a look behind him at his wheelman. John stood frozen and swaying, gripping the edge of the chart desk, his mouth gaping like a hooked trout. John’s eyes darted away from the thing beyond the window long enough to share with him a look of unconcealed shock. 

A growing electrical charge raised the hairs over his body. His thoughts sprinted wildly, probed his repertoire for emergency procedures. 

He had no protocol for this. 

 His gaze flicked to a faltering motion on the stairs leading up to the pilothouse. O’Brian, taking his shift. O’Brian’s eyes were on his feet as his climbed the stairs, swaying with the motion of the freighter. As O’Brian lifted his face, he stiffened. McSorely saw, rather than heard, O’Brian’s mouth form the words over the noise of the storm.

“What’s that?”

 O’Brian’s hand rose to point at the pilot house window.

Over the roar of the storm the bass thrumming mingled with a new sound, a reverberant metallic scraping. 

 

***

 

The Emissary finished wrenching the ends of the harnesses free from the storage bin, carefully clipped himself into the nearest one, and gave it a tug. Satisfied that he was secure, he opened the panel containing the switch that would slide the clear canopy back through the egress tube. His hand hovered over the switch. He reviewed his options.

He had to act quickly. His ship would have them all panicking. 

He would smile. He would use his arms to beckon them. He would use voice amplification to instruct them in English. Do not be afraid. 

Yes. He would say that first. 

He pressed the switch and caught his breath as fingers of cold slipped around the retracting canopy, through the egress tube access door and into his tiny vessel. Braced himself. Shoved his head and torso into the egress tube. Gasped, squeezing his eyes shut against the icy blast that ripped across the right side of his face, the side that faced the open hatch and the storm beyond.

He twisted his head to the left and blinked to clear his vision. Swiped wet strands of hair from his eyes. Before him lay his spacecraft’s power generator. It nested reassuringly in place opposite the hatch opening, protected by the retracted canopy shield. He gave the generator an affectionate pat. One of the old 1G-0 models, it had kept him good company during his long, solo flight to Earth. 

He practiced more English. The generator did not understand English, but the ship would translate his words using the Tap. 

“Thank you for getting us here, Wunjio.”

 A little niggle of worry made him slide open Wunjio’s display panel. As expected, Wunjio’s two color wheels spun robustly. Wunjio was working well. He tapped the two color wheels in the pattern that conveyed his gratitude. If his mission was successful, many more would also be grateful. The whirling color wheels acknowledged his thanks, shifting to blues and greens. Satisfied, he slid the display panel shut.

Like a giant silver finger longer than he was tall, Wunjio the generator seemed to be pointing him toward the hatch that he was poised to exit. The reaction chamber regulator tipped the generator’s silver tube with its glorious array of endlessly shifting, luminous colors. He listened, trying to tune out the scream of the wind. 

The generator’s reassuring hum still purred. Steadily, just as it had for all the many days it had taken him to arrive here from the Colony. 

Wunjio was a high-quality generator. A few decades, surely, before this generator would need to be deactivated, withdrawn through the core tube like some worn battery on so many of those Earth devices, and swapped with a newer model. 

As he considered his ship’s generator, a strange foreboding crept through him. The unbidden image of his damaged craft piloting itself through a stormy night to another, more distant shore again rose to mind. Dark dread spread and coated the pit of his stomach. He shook it off.

Normal, for a pilot to worry about their ship’s power generator. So much depended on it. He couldn’t return without it. And Wunjio needed him, in turn. For a reaction chamber to run without maintenance…his eyes squeezed shut at the thought. He would never allow that to happen. 

He shoved the rest of his body into the egress tube. Rotated to face the open hatch. Wind bit into his face. 

 

***

 

The three men stood frozen, gaping through the pilot house window. The impossible craft hung beyond. Light from the craft penetrated through the glass, illuminating them, causing their shadows to leap around the cabin as they rode the waves. They had just watched a clear dome on the surface of the sphere retract, exposing what looked like an opening. 

McSorely swallowed down a sick sense of terror. That opening. Large enough for a man to exit. Or enter. He found he was holding his breath. He let it out slowly, shakily, and stammered out his thoughts.

“Could be Soviet…but…why would the Reds be here?”

John kept shaking his head at him, his eyes huge.

O’Brian started lurching around, slamming cabinets open and shut. “Don’t we got…some kinda…camera here…DAMN!” 

McSorely turned back to the window, willed himself to take in every detail he could as his thoughts raced, trying to make sense of what they were seeing. 

What he had first thought was a huge, blue sphere wasn’t entirely smooth. Three long, blue, curving fins arced off the surface of the sphere, each one about as long as a man was tall and seated at right angles to one another. The craft was rotating slowly, he could see that now. 

The light was faint, at first. A rainbow of shifting colors spilled from the circular opening, intensifying as it slid fully into view. When the opening faced them squarely, the craft stopped rotating. In front of that luminous glow, a bulky shadow hunched.

Flickering colors moved along the surface of the tube as the shadow shifted. Lengthened. 

He sucked in his breath. The shadow had a face. 

A pleasant face. A man’s face, clearly smiling, emerging from the opening, flinching hard at the wind. Now his arm emerged, waving. The man’s smile tightened into a wince as wind lashed his face. 

What on Earth?

A low groan made him whip his head about. John’s eyes were full of horror and fixed on something beyond the blue craft. O’Brian lifted his finger to point.

“My God! That wave—” 

 Before he could turn to look, the deck tipped. McSorely felt his body drop before he was hurled against the far wall of the cabin. Pain made him clench his eyes shut. The cries of his companions joined his as the deck of the freighter shot up. Too fast. A ripping, tearing crack rang out. Cringing, he blinked open his eyes. 

Another slam, harder, rammed him against the opposite side of the cabin. Pain socked his ribs and he gasped for breath. 

The angle that his cabin was tilting was all wrong. Walls becoming floors. Floors becoming walls. He twisted, trying to find the cabin window. There.

Through silver bolts of water streaking the glass, a mass of blue beyond. The strange craft still hovered. But it had changed.

Now a crushed thing lurched to and fro over the deck. Its smooth blue surface bore a long, jagged gash. White light dazzled through the tear, illuminating a long glowing, silver object inside. It looked like some sort of missile.

But far more riveting was that silhouetted shape, moving around the missile-thing. The figure’s arms and legs scrambled, grappled at something inside the broken shell. The man’s frantic motions sent a surge of pity through him. 

Motion on the horizon caught his eye. He swallowed. Shook his head at the size of it.

Another wave. Rising swiftly, heading straight for them. 

He knew it would be impossible for him to hear, but he couldn’t help shouting a warning.  

“Watch out!”

The man inside the strange blue craft couldn’t see what was coming.

 

***

 

Both submerged in the calm below the surface of the lake, both adrift in a medium they were never intended to traverse, the freighter and the mysterious spacecraft hung together for a long moment. Then, both began moving in opposite directions.

Two pieces of the freighter sank and would eventually settle on the lake floor over five-hundred feet below. As the fractured Fitzgerald began its downward descent, the remains of the Emissary’s craft, now missing a significant portion of its hull, rose up, struggling to surface. Its reemergence into air added to the lake one more powerful wave. 

Wobbling to a height just out of reach of the waves, disgorging green lake water from the ragged gash in its hull, it lurched southward in limp-home mode. 

The Emissary’s tiny ship had something that the mighty Edmund Fitzgerald did not. Its designers built in thousands of years of trial and error. Epochs worth of refinement of machinery and technology. They gifted their craft with some ability to self-repair. They had even granted the craft, through sophisticated sensory and motor networks, a measure of awareness. 

 In the Colony’s long history of spaceflight, a craft of this class had never sustained this much damage while retaining the ability to fly. It flew southward. The nearest Emissary emergency rendezvous point was Door County, Wisconsin. 

The ship was aware that there was no longer a pilot on board. 

 

© 2024 Holly Phaneuf Erskine. All Rights Reserved

Comments

[EJ Jones II]

More! More more!

[Holly Phaneuf Erskine]

EJ, thank you for your kind words. If you wish, you can hit the contact me button and I can send you a beta draft if you really do want to read more. I truly value all the feedback I have been getting.
Holly