This week I'm posting the beginning of The Shell and the Star, my as-yet unpublished aquatic Science Fiction Romance book. This is a story in my Inherited Stars Universe, though it takes place in the very distant future (about 50,000 years after events in the current timeline).
To make reading a little easier, the story portion will be double-spaced and it will feature a title image with occasional graphics added for interest. I'll be posting a new portion every Monday here on Spacefreighters Lounge. Comments very welcome and appreciated.
Welcome to the far future...
CHAPTER ONE
“You have a suitor.”
Jinn peered up into her father’s grey
eyes as he floated into place before her. Is
he joking? Since she’d come of age, five long calendars had passed without
a bid. She’d given up hope of ever having a mate. Who would want me? “Who…who
makes this request?”
“The Fourth Imperator of the
Perling.”
Jinn gasped, reeling like the
oxygen had just been sucked out the airlock. A Perling sovereign? An alien? “Father, no! I can’t—”
“You will answer his bid,” her
father insisted, grabbing a handhold to anchor himself in Talstar’s microgravity.
“But why? Why would a Perling Imperator
want my hand?”
“Not the leader himself, girl. He
asks on behalf of his second son.”
Jinn dropped her gaze to her small
fists clenched around the frame of her sleeprack. Her shoulder bumped the
bulkhead when she pushed off to face him. “Why would even a second son want me?” Compared to the towering, graceful
figure of her father, she felt ugly, unworthy—an outcast. If only she’d been
born like him. Like all of her
people. “Does he know I’m a—”
“It’s irrelevant.”
Jinn fought to hold back tears.
“Not to him.”
“I’m having an eco-bubble readied
for the next trade shuttle flight. You will leave tomorrow for the seas below.”
“Tomorrow?”
Her father’s determined eyes fixed
on her, his expression permitting no argument. “Daughter, you’ve had no suitors
on Talstar. You will honor the bid of this Perling.”
“But Father…I know nothing of their
realm.”
“You will learn.” He turned his
head away and pulled in a deep draw of recycled air before slowly releasing it.
“You will learn…what I couldn’t teach you.”
Jinn bowed her head. Talstar was
all she’d ever known. Why must she leave her refuge for the oceans of Veros to
meet an alien sea-dweller who would only reject her on sight? At least here she
had family, a mother who soothed and a father who sheltered. Here she knew
contentment. Not the happiness she craved, no. But safety. Security. A safe place
to hide from the disdain and pity of others.
“You grow quiet. I thought you
would be eager to meet the one who has bid for your hand.”
“Not like this. Not a bid from a
male I’ve never met, an alien suitor who knows nothing about me. Or my flaws.”
Her father reached out to take a
handhold near the port-vu in her compartment and gazed down at the blue world
below. “Always you assume the worst.”
“Experience has taught me well.”
“Jinn, our ties with the Perling
grow weak. The populations of both domains are swelling and our trade pacts are
strained as a result. We must reinforce our connection or neither race may
survive. A blood tie with the son of the Fourth Imperator would renew and
strengthen our alliance. Your sisters have all chosen Talstar mates.” He
released the handhold, turning to face her. “You have no prospects here, and
are my last hope for a beneficial match.”
A beneficial match? Is that really
what he thought would happen? No male on Talstar was interested in her, why
would the son of a noble water-dweller want anything to do with her? “I will
only disappoint. At least tell him of me and allow him to withdraw his bid.
Spare me the shame of outright rejection.”
Her father’s gaze finally returned
to her face. “The bid agreement was struck with the Imperator himself, not his
heir.”
“And what if the Imperator is
offended that you send a mutant to his son?”
“He knows of your condition.”
Jinn sucked in her breath. “You
said he did not!”
“I said his son did not.”
Jinn searched his eyes, refusing to
let tears fall. Had the two leaders conspired to keep the truth from Imperator’s
son? She could imagine the succession of expressions on the young man’s face
when he first laid eyes on her. Shock. Dismay. Revulsion. “You and your friend conspire
to hide the truth of what I am? Nothing good
can ever come of that!”
“I think you underestimate
yourself, Jinn. As you always have.” Her father pushed off the handhold and
floated toward the door. “Essa will pack your necessities in a bubble for
tomorrow’s flight. Until then, you should get your rest.”
Jinn couldn’t look at him. How
could he do this? Hadn’t she faced enough shame and ridicule on Talstar? Now
she’d be thrust into an alien realm where she was sure to face much harsher
humiliation? “How long must I remain on Perling?”
“Until the two of you come to a
decision about your future together.”
“Then it will be a very short
trip.”
“Daughter.” Her father paused by
the exit hatch. “For once I ask you to trust me. I always have your best
interests at heart, though you often doubt me.”
He pulled himself into the corridor
and sealed the hatch behind him, the hollow clank of the latch reverberating
through her chamber.
Free-floating, Jinn covered her
face with her hands and lost the battle to hold back her tears.
***
Jinn powered her bubble off the
trade shuttle after it had descended through the Veros atmosphere, gone
submarine and docked underwater at the trade transfer station. Her envirosphere
followed its pre-programmed coordinates to take her to the Imperator’s estate. As
the submersible navigated out of the enclosed transfer station, the
frightening, captivating, resplendent vista unfolding ahead made her gasp
aloud. She pushed braced against the cushion of her flight couch and tried to
take in the wonder of the colors and shapes.
The daunting, blue world of Fourth
City dwarfed her small, one-person sphere in an alien panorama. Colorful sea
fans waved next to stark stands of bleached white coral. A few scant schools of
yellow-striped fish darted among the rocks and flora. Bright red crabs scouted
the sandy bottom. And all around her the enormity of the ocean pressed in,
threatening to crush her little circle of life. She looked straight up—toward
home—and could just see the shimmering plane of the surface, at least thirty
foot-spans above her head.
Her bubble auto-navigated around
the bulk of a dark, underwater mount, and set course for a massive structure
shaped of smooth, pastel coated curves and domes. The Imperator’s Estate, no
doubt, completely submerged and overlooking the expansive dominion of Fourth
City. The Perling settlement filled the undersea horizon, fading to hazy greens
in the distance.
Her envirosphere entered the portal
of the stately home and swiveled its silent thrusters to hold position. Jinn
stared through the clear barrier at the finery of the watery mansion’s
vestibule. The smooth floors and convex walls looked to be formed of polished
flow-coat, a product of the dimensional printers Talstar exported to Perling.
But these structures were alive with rich aquas, blues and teals that were a
total contrast to the familiar grays, blacks and off-whites of her orbiting
home.
A party of six Perling staffers
arrived to greet her, each with two arms and two legs that ended in colorful
fins, the bright fabrics of their bodyveils moving gently in the soft current.
Other than their aquatic adaptions, Jinn was surprised that the Perling didn’t
look so very different from her own kind. One species floated in low gravity
above the planet, the other swam beneath the surface of a warm sea, but both
had the tall, lean, willowy forms that suited their environments.
So unlike the small, clumsy body
that she’d been cursed with.
She expected looks of alarm and
disgust from the Perling greeting party, but instead they smiled at her and
traded glances. Did they find her appearance amusing? Jinn glanced down at her
plain black leggings and simple white tunic with its row of gold-tone catches.
Her clothing did nothing to hide her deformity. No wonder they grinned. Why had
she even come here?
Story Commentary
A few years ago I had a stroke of inspiration and started writing one of my on-a-back-burner-in-my-head stories that had been simmering away on my creative stove top for many years. It started out as a lighthearted SFR story about two misfits who fell in love. But over time it evolved...In a convo with a couple of peers, I described it this way:
"The Shell and the Star takes place 50,000 years in the future of Inherit the Stars. It's a Romeo and Juliette-esque story about two civilizations struggling with continued self-reliance, which two leaders are trying to help remedy through an arranged interspecies marriage...but there are some major unforeseen consequences due to cultural differences and misunderstandings."
Meaning of "The Shell" and "The Star"
The backstory hints at a Pern-style abandonment and resulting isolation, after a meteor event all but destroys the world. But two separate civilizations manage to survive, finding refuge in very different habitats and a necessary but tenuous reliance on each other.
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| Visual inspiration for a semi-aquatic story. |
The two species have survived by the grace of their delicate co-dependency. The society of the Shell relies on the technology supplied by the people of The Star, and The Star trades their technology for food to feed a population that has outgrown its limited agricultural resources.
Veros is (or at least was) the paradise world mentioned in Inherit the Stars, Courting Disaster (Pets in Space 2), and SpyDog, a planet of warm seas and tropical islands. Fifty thousand years later, a percentage of the warm seas remain, but the once lush, tropical lands are now nothing but scorched earth. The people of the Shell have built their underwater cities in the shallow, protected bays of these oceans.
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| Home of "The Star," better known as Talstar Station. |
Those who read the earlier books may have guessed the identity of this manmade super-station. It's none other than Talstar--once home of the Universal Flight Academy and the Carduwan Fifth Fleet Headquarters in the long, long ago and all but forgotten.
For readers familiar with my series, this story presents one major question. The known galaxy had many inhabited worlds and systems capable of space travel. Why were these people abandoned by the other cultures to fend for themselves? (A big clue to that is in Juggernaut, a story from Pets in Space 5 that is on track to be published separately in 2022.)
Read on next Monday, and have a great week!
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