Embers in the Sea
Page 28
The whoosh of David’s soul coated me, sheltered me from my fears. I’m here. And there was no one I wanted with me more.
Tears streamed from my cheeks as the crests of the waves came into view. I’d spent so much time at the beach back home, staring at the ocean. Maybe this was fitting.
At least I’d die on Earth.
38
The ship quaked and moaned like a tortured, dying animal.
“Orieb casala thorent, est!” David screamed, releasing my hand.
My mind translated it to something akin to holy effing crap. Not that it mattered. I wished I would have had a chance to really learn his language. Not that that mattered either, a few seconds before I died.
David sprang from his seat, clearly oblivious to the planet we were about to smack into.
“What are you doing?”
He sank his wrists into the panel. “The power is trying to come on.”
“Seriously?”
The lights flickered. David bent his knees as if bracing for impact. He grunted and growled at the stress. The gentle ripples of the ocean waves traveled along their path, unworried about the spaceship that was about to plow into them. I closed my eyes.
“Grrrrr-ahhhh!” David screamed.
My eyes bolted open as we banked up just inches from the water. We flew back up into a crystal-blue sky kissed with beautiful billowing clouds.
We weren’t dead.
Holy shit. We weren’t dead!
We leveled off and hovered. My seat released and I jumped into David’s arms.
My tears stained his shirt while his soaked my shoulder.
“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it.”
David’s heartbeat pummeled my chest. His deep breaths echoed through my ears. “I’m not sure I do, either. It’s like the ship choked, passed out, and woke up groggy. I’ve never heard of anything like it before.”
“Stupid experimental technology.”
Edgar rolled over and shook. He lifted his one gray leg and itched the bald spot behind his center eye before tilting his head as if questioning us.
David smiled. “I think that experimental technology just saved our lives.”
“What about the other ship?”
He waved his hand over the panel. “It’s gone. I only hit them once. That detonation must have been their primary core exploding.”
“Lucky shot, huh?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I guess so.” He continued to fiddle with the panel. “Wait a minute. Something is strange.”
“What?” I settled into my chair.
“The readings. There has to be a mistake.” He turned to me. “The population numbers. They’re higher.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, but it makes no sense. Right below us in the area designated New England, it’s showing about seven hundred thousand people.”
A smile burst across my face. “What about the rest of the country?”
“There only seems to be people on the east coast. And the numbers are small. The rest of the country is nearly wiped out. Just small concentrated pockets of life.”
I nodded. “That’s okay. That’s some people. That’s more than extinction, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “Yes, but it’s very strange. I’ve never known the instruments to be that wrong.”
We flew toward Earth. The green struck me first. Trees, everywhere. Sand and brush dotted the shoreline.
“There’s no sign of the scourge. Maybe they got the ceasefire before they hit this area?”
He squinted at the panel. “There are no large buildings, no sign of technology. It has to be scourged.”
“Are there any signs of the Erescopians?”
He leaned closer to the panel. “None. Let’s land and see if we can find out what’s going on.”
We moved over the trees, jostling the leaves until we settled beneath the branches. Edgar wrapped around my ankle as the shimmering elevator whisked us to the surface.
I stepped away from the ship into a small clearing beside our landing site. A gentle, crisp breeze caressed my cheeks. The air smelled fresh and new after being on a ship for so long.
Edgar scampered beside the nearly invisible edge of the ship. The base of the craft mirrored the trees above, and the liquescent hull angled around the trunks as if it had oozed itself between them. If I didn’t know what I was looking for, I’d have no idea there was a spaceship there.
A bird flittered in the trees behind me, chirping to a friend on another branch. A squirrel scampered down a trunk and disappeared under the brush. He stuck his head out and eyed me warily before scooting back into hiding. It all seemed so—normal.
Crazy, how half the country had been blown away, but life went on here like nothing happened.
I walked back toward the ship. David tapped on some sort of hand-held computer. “Do you know where we are?”
“Somewhere just outside a place called Danvers, Massachusetts. There is a high concentration of survivors just north of here. They should be able to tell us what’s going on.”
I walked backward a few steps, taking in our landing site. The trees and vines wove around the liquescent hull as if they’d overgrown the alien technology for years, leaving our vessel completely invisible inside the edge of the forest. “Is there a reason you hid the ship? I’m afraid we won’t be able to find it when we get back.”
David peeked over his shoulder. “To be honest, I’m a little unnerved by all of this. There’s no sign of my people anywhere. I figure it’s probably not the best idea to scream here’s the alien until we know whether or not I’ll be shot on sight.”
“Good point.”
I watched my step as we walked the dirt path, wishing I hadn’t lost my Nikes at the bottom of Mariana’s Trench. My bare feet kicked up the dust in a cloud that stole away on the breeze. David walked over the rough terrain like nothing. He probably couldn’t feel anything through that fake human skin of his. I tried not to limp as another rock stabbed at my heel. Martinez feet were definitely not made for barefoot hiking.
David raised his hand, stopping me. “What’s that noise?”
A clop clop clop clop sound mixed with a squeak carried on the breeze. A horse whinnied.
Edgar scampered around my feet as we climbed to the top of a hill. I stopped short. Trees sprawled in every direction for miles, losing themselves within the horizon.
David held up his computer tablet and tapped on the screen. “This is definitely not scourged.”
This forest—the woods going on for miles on end—was wrong. There should have been towns. Houses. Shopping malls.
Where was everybody?
David’s eyes widened. “Jess, this atmosphere is showing only a point zero-two-six pollution quotient.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s impossible. It’s like a new planet, uncontaminated by modern technology.”
The side of his computer opened up, and he scraped some dirt into a scoop that drew back into the unit. His lips formed a straight line.
“What?”
“This planet hasn’t been scourged.”
“What do you mean? Then where is everyone?”
He lowered the device. His gaze scanned the trees. “I don’t think they’ve been born yet.”
Icy fingers crawled down my spine. “I don’t understand.”
“This planet is younger than the one we left. This isn’t your Earth, Jess. According to these readings, this is Earth’s past. My people won’t arrive for another three hundred years.”
I stared at him, waiting for a punchline that didn’t come. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
He shrugged. “Is this one of those times that you want me to lie to you?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know!” I dragged my fingers through my hair.
The clopping sound elevated, and a wooden, horse-drawn cart rol
led along a dirt path between the trees below us, kicking up dust behind it like a fog.
My stomach flipped. It couldn’t be. “Time travel isn’t possible.”
“I’m aware of that.” His gaze fell back on his device. He tapped his fingers across the screen.
A sinking feeling crept through my center. I tucked my hair behind my ears and closed my eyes. The leaves blew in the wind, blocking out the faint sound of the cart. No car horns. No radios. No anything.
Shivering, I took in the sprawling forest, the clean scent of the air, the overwhelming sense of … nothing. Nothing but pure, undeveloped nature. My lower lip trembled, struggling against a sob.
“We’re going to be fine,” David said, still intent on the screen. “According to these readings—”
I spun and grabbed the computer from his hands. I nearly threw it. “Will you get your head out of that thing for a minute?”
He gaped, staring at me.
“David, we’re back in time. In the past!” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh, or cry. Slumping to the ground, I set the computer pad on the sandy gravel. I’d gone from everyone I knew being dead, to everyone I knew not being born yet. Somehow, I felt just as alone.
The horse whinnied in the distance as the breeze swept through my hair.
I straightened. Dad, Maggie, Matt: they weren’t dead … yet.
And right now, the aliens might not even know about Earth.
“We can fix this,” I said. “We can stop the apocalypse before it ever happens.”
David gazed into the trees. “Theoretically, I suppose we could.”
“Theoretically? Why couldn’t we? All you need to do is bring us back before your people attack.”
He nodded. “Theoretically.”
I jumped to my feet. “Will you stop saying that! This will work. This has to work.”
A trickle of fear crept across our bond, a deep, frightened certainty of—failure?
I took his hands in mine. “David we can do this. We can save everyone.”
His gaze darted to the computer on the ground, and back to me. “I don’t know how to get us home, Jess. I don’t even know how we got here in the first place.”
I let go of his hands and slumped back to the ground, covering my eyes. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
He settled beside me. “There is a bright side.”
I laughed. “Oh please, let me have it.”
David smiled. “We have about three hundred years to figure this out.”
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Gah! Sorry about that ending. Please don’t hate me!
[She runs and hides her head under a pillow]
If you’d like to be the first to hear about future books, follow this link for the latest news, cover reveals, and maybe even some bonus content. http://tinyurl.com/pwvs98h
And if you’re in the mood, don’t be a stranger. Drop me a line and let me know what you thought about Embers in the Sea. I’m on all sorts of social media. Pick your favorite mode of space travel at my website http://www.jennifereaton.com/
Waving madly from the pre-industrial age!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing Embers in the Sea was a huge challenge for me. Without a doubt, this was the hardest book in the series to write. I mean, Jess and David have already been chased through the woods, and then through a spaceship, and then through outer space. Where else was there to go? The ocean was the next great frontier, but this setting proved more difficult than anything I’ve written before.
I have to admit, the first several drafts were rough and ugly. Thanks so much for my team of beta readers J. Keller Ford and Kelly Said, who weren’t afraid to tell me how much work was still ahead of me, and pointed out all those places where things would have been fine on land, but weren’t really working underwater.
Thanks also to my Month9Books editors Cameron and Georgia, whose extensive comments and in-person meetings about the story brought things to light that I hadn’t noticed. Thank you both for believing we could make Embers into something great.
There is a certain point in the editing process where I begin to question just about everything. I’m not writing for myself anymore, but for a sea of people who love my characters just as much as I do. Sharon, I have to say, handing over a pre-pubbed version of this book to a fan may have been the most stressful thing I’ve ever done. Thank you for re-infusing me with the electric charge of a fan felt “squee.” I could feel your smile from thousands of miles away. Thank you for your suggestions, concerns, and for confirming that this roller coaster ride was ready for prime time. And, yeah, that ending … sorry. Hope you can repair whatever it was that you threw across the room.
In the crazy world of authorship, ya gotta have friends. This is a big old, heartfelt shout out to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pens, who cheer me on when things are going great, and offer shoulders to cry on when things are hard. You certainly had to listen to a lot of my bellyaching over this book. You guys are worth your weight in gold. Nope, you are! Go hop on a scale and check! (Okay, okay, you can skip the scale part if you want.)
As always, I have to thank my family who are so supportive of my writing. Thanks to my husband for never even blinking when I have a deadline. You are what keeps our house running. Without you, none of us would eat. Thanks for all you do.
Also a special nod to my oldest son, who peeks into my office every night to make sure I’ve gotten enough pages done, and also reminds me that I need to sleep. Love you, buddy!
To my two younger dudes: your hugs and smiles are worth the world. Sometimes they are all that keeps me going on a rough night.
And to the fans: you have no idea how much joy it gives me to see you guys online talking about my books. I appreciate it like you wouldn’t believe. Thank you for all the support. You guys make it all worthwhile.
Alien Kisses!
JENNIFER M. EATON
Jennifer M. Eaton hails from the eastern shore of the North American Continent on planet Earth. Yes, regrettably, she is human, but please don’t hold that against her. While not traipsing through the galaxy looking for specimens for her space moth collection, she lives with her wonderfully supportive husband and three energetic offspring. (And a poodle who runs the spaceport when she’s not around.)
During infrequent excursions to her home planet of Earth, Jennifer enjoys long hikes in the woods, bicycling, swimming, snorkeling, and snuggling up by the fire with a great book; but great adventures are always a short shuttle ride away.
Who knows where we’ll end up next?
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
A Note from the Author
Acknowledgements
About the Author
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