I rang the doorbell. We could hear a simple two-toned chime from inside, like the one we’d had in our apartment in Houston when I was growing up. It was hard to wait, but after a few seconds we could hear footsteps from inside. The door opened.
It wasn’t Cornell or Sally standing there. It was Rosalind, dressed in sneakers, jeans and a t-shirt. Someone small was standing behind her wearing a similar outfit.
“Hello, Jack,” she said. “I see you’ve figured out that Cornell’s my brother.”
What?
The face of a child, a boy around four, peeked around Rosalind. He had light brown hair and freckles across his nose.
“Jack, this is your son, Telemachus,” said Rosalind, indicating the boy.
He smiled and looked up at me, a shy smile turning up the corners of his mouth.
Rosalind bent her knees until her head was even with the boy’s. She put one arm around him and pointed in my direction with the other.
“Max, this is your daddy.”
Small arms wrapped around my knees and my universe changed forever.
Further Adventures
Please visit
www.XenotechSupport.com
for more details about
the universe of Xenotech Support
and the Galactic Free Trade Association
Jack & Poly’s adventures begin in
Xenotech Rising
and continue in
Xenotech Queen’s Gambit
and
Xenotech What Happens
and will soon be followed by
Xenotech General Mayhem
Sign up for the Xenotech Support mailing list
on the web site to get advance notice of publication.
You may also enjoy a related novelette:
Xenotech
The Man Who Sold the Earth
which tells what happened on First Contact Day
Dedication & Copyright
To my fans.
I hope you’ll forgive me
for the cliffhanger.
Copyright © 2016 by Paul David Schroeder
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by Dan Paulson
Image of Las Vegas Strip
thanks to Lasvegaslover under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Spiral Arm Press
1725 Carlington Court
Grayson, GA 30017
www.spiralarmpress.com
About the Author
Dave Schroeder is a former Chief Information Officer who’s done his share of tech support. He’s served as Chief Technology Officer for a Bay Area dotcom and led the ecommerce division of a major Internet consulting company. He also wrote the book, lyrics and music for Softwear.com, a musical comedy produced off-off-Broadway. Dave lives in suburban Atlanta where he enjoys writing and voice acting with the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.
Xenotech What Happens: A Novel of the Galactic Free Trade Association (Xenotech Support Book 3) Page 36