Ruins Preview

Chapter 1 of my upcoming novel!

Fleet Admiral Fynn Harper ensured he opened the door carefully despite the burning anger behind his eyes. He couldn’t make any more mistakes, especially at this meeting. Throwing the door open in his fury wouldn’t do him any favors with the other Fleet Admirals.

Fynn marched into the meeting room. A glossy table made of dark brown wood sat in the middle of the room, covered in tablets, each equipped with its own stylus. Seven other Fleet Admirals, all wearing their clean, pressed uniforms like Fynn’s, sat at the table, their eyes finding Fynn as he marched into the room. Their faces were expressionless, hiding any emotion running through their minds. It was always hard to read people in the Navy. The higher ranked you found yourself, the more stern faces you came across, never yielding to emotion. But Fynn was sure he saw disappointment in their eyes. He couldn’t imagine what he did this time, but he knew the other Fleet Admirals had their eyes on Fynn since the entire Esslar star system blew itself apart.

The Esslar system was in Fynn’s jurisdiction. The two mining corporations inhabiting the star system got into a massive dispute, blowing holes in each other’s ships and even attacking each other’s planets. It was a huge mess. Too many people died. Lewis Mining Corporation was in a heap of legal trouble. They tried to get out of it, saying that there was a humanoid fossil inside one of the asteroids they found, and Thane Mining Corporation had attacked them for it. But the fossil was conveniently destroyed during the battle on Ves. Without any evidence to back up their claims, LMC lost their franchise, disintegrating the corporate entity.

TMC would have been in a lot of trouble, too, if it hadn’t been for the owner, Greyson Thane, dispersing the corporation before legal action could have occurred. But that didn’t stop Fynn from arresting Thane. He needed to pay for what he’d done. The chaos he and his corporation caused cost too many lives, and that wasn’t something Fynn could let slide. Besides, Fynn needed to do something to make it look like he was taking action after those events. He tried tracking down the Admiral who worked under Greyson Thane, Mila Fernandes. But she ran off somewhere, and Fynn lost sight of her. He’d been watching his systems closely, but there was still no sign of her.

Fynn sat in the only remaining seat, bringing the chair closer to the table and lacing his fingers in front of him. Another disciplinary meeting, he was sure. Why did he get all the punishment when the other Fleet Admirals swept other conflicts in their jurisdictions under the rug? Maybe Fynn was their scapegoat, a way of keeping the Federation leaders on Earth happy with how productive their Navy was. It made Fynn want to vomit.

Fynn took a deep breath. The other Fleet Admirals continued to watch him, silent and still. Was this some kind of psychological tactic? What was their angle here? What did they want? They had to be up to something. Fynn was going to figure out what. But to do that, he needed to get these guys to start talking.

Fynn shrugged. “What is the nature of this meeting?”

The older, bald man on the right-hand side of the table and sitting furthest from Fynn, Fleet Admiral Nathan Brock, shifted in his seat. “We’ve received a report from Fleet Admiral Swain’s ships, and we thought you might be interested in seeing it.”

Fynn raised an eyebrow. “What does Swain’s fleet have to do with me?”

Sitting on Fynn’s immediate left, Fleet Admiral Simon Swain crossed his arms. “We believe there may have been something… missed during your investigation into the Esslar system incident.”

It was everything Fynn could do to keep from yelling at his peers. Were they being serious? This was what they threw at him? They were pathetic. How could he have missed something? They were desperate to do anything to get him in trouble. The morons would probably bring him into a disciplinary meeting for relieving himself the wrong way. Anything that went wrong was always, one way or another, Fynn’s fault, and he was getting tired of it.

“There was nothing more to find,” Fynn said, controlling his tone and volume. “I looked deep. I saw everything there was to see. Greyson Thane became desperate and attacked his competitor. The pirates swooped in to profit off the escalating conflict. That’s all to the story.”

Swain stroked his chin. “These pirates who are still at large after three years.”

Fynn leaned forward. “What are you saying, Swain?”

“I’m saying you still have some cleanup you’ve been putting off for far too long. The Phoenix Fleet is still causing problems, and you haven’t stopped them.”

“They relocated from the Esslar system, Admiral Swain,” said Fynn. “I’ve been looking, but—“

“This is beside the point, Fynn,” said Brock, interrupting when Fynn tried to defend himself. Typical. “The report broadcasted to us tells me that you didn’t do as thorough a job as you should have with the incident.”

Fynn crossed his arms. “Tell me about the report.”

Brock took his tablet from the table, pressing a few buttons. The hologram at the center of the table displayed a three-dimensional image of a giant asteroid next to a Federation battleship. The asteroid was massive. Bigger than the battleship itself. Its sheer size brought Fynn pause, but he knew finding a giant rock in space couldn’t be what all this was about.

There was something off about the asteroid. Fynn squinted, looking closer at it. The shape was strange. Why did it look like that? Wait, were those engines? The flames spewing from the rock seemed to indicate thrust, moving the celestial body forward. And between the asteroid and the vessel, he found energy bolts, but something else, too. Bolts of yellow lightning streaked between the asteroid and the battleship, hammering away at the battleship’s shields. Fynn hadn’t seen anything like it. What was he looking at?

Brock sat back in his seat and answered Fynn’s unspoken question. “We believe this is the first image of an extraterrestrial vessel.”

Fynn peered through the transparent hologram hovering above the table and met the bald Fleet Admiral’s eyes. “Aliens.”

“That’s putting it in rudimentary terms, but yes. Aliens.”

Fynn stared at the image, amazed at the starship that appeared to be made out of rock. He had always wondered if there was intelligent life aside from humans. He wasn’t sure how he felt now that it seemed to be fact more than fiction. But what did it have to do with the Esslar incident?

It took a moment for Fynn to make the connection. He rolled his eyes internally. “Do you really think this ship is connected to the fossil those miners found?”

Brock nodded. “We believe they are related, yes. We may be close to uncovering a truth buried for centuries.”

“What does this have to do with my investigation of the Esslar incident?” asked Fynn.

“If you had done your job properly and thoroughly inspected the star system, you would have found further evidence of an intelligent species in the universe. We could have been better prepared and wouldn’t have lost the Bright Horizon.”

Fynn scowled. Losing the battleship to that… thing wasn’t his fault. Nothing could have prepared them for that attack, even if Fynn uncovered evidence of aliens. Those lightning blasts looked powerful. It must have eaten through the battleship's military-grade shield pretty quickly. Federation battleships were equipped with hard-hitting weapons. If the asteroid-ship withstood a Federation vessel, its shields and hull must have been very strong.

Fynn cocked his head at Brock. “How do we know these guys were aliens? Maybe they were pirates who built an unusual starship. It would fit their purpose—powerful, shield-breaking weapons. A disguise to hide from Federation vessels. It’s a pirate’s dream. Why do we think it’s aliens?”

“We’ve inspected the image and found that the starship was too unusual a construction to be human,” said Swain.

Fynn got what he was really saying. Open your eyes, idiot. If only Fynn could punch the man in his perfect smile. Oh, he’d love to see that cocky grin wiped straight off Swain’s face. But he was in enough trouble as it was, even if none of this was his fault.

Brock raised a scolding eyebrow at Swain before turning back to Fynn. “The report continues and details a boarding party, describing the appearance of the attackers.”

Fynn sat back in his seat. “What? No image?”

“Unfortunately, the ship went down as the images were transmitting. They’re lost with the vessel.”

Of course, they were. Pretty convenient. Fynn suppressed a groan.

“But,” Brock continued, “we were given a description, and the description of this matches the fossil from the Esslar incident.”

“Rumored,” said Fynn. “The rumored fossil from the Esslar incident.”

Brock shook his head. “We can no longer deny its existence. There are scans of the asteroid containing the fossil. Detailed, three-dimensional models from both corporations that match up perfectly.”

“Models can be faked. That was your argument the first time we discussed the incident. Remember?”

Brock shrugged. “I was proven wrong, and your inspection wasn’t as detailed as it should have been, which meant that we were given no further evidence that the aliens or the fossil ever existed.”

“I abandoned the investigation by your suggestion, Brock,” said Fynn.

“A suggestion that could have been ignored.”

“If I ignored it, you would have thrown me under the bus for wasting Naval resources instead.”

“You are not on trial, Admiral Harper.”

“Then why does it feel like I’m always being accused of all of our problems every time I step into this room?”

Swain chuckled. “Calm down, Harper. We aren’t all out to get you.”

Fynn tensed his muscles, ready to fly from his chair and strangle Swain. But Swain was right about one thing. He needed to calm down. If he was going to get out of this hot water alive, he needed to follow protocol to the letter, go the extra mile, and show the Federation who he really was.

Fynn saw the true purpose of this meeting. He knew why he was accused of not doing a proper job with the Esslar incident. It was because the other Fleet Admirals were afraid. If this starship was an alien vessel, humanity had already made first contact, and it went violently. They were scared to take on this task because they weren’t sure what these creatures could do. Besides, beginning interspecies negotiations was too big a challenge for any of them. They didn’t want that much responsibility. All they wanted was the power that came with having such a high-ranking military position, along with the fat paycheck. No risk, all the reward.

Fine. If they didn’t want to do it, fine. This was Fynn’s chance to prove himself. This was his chance to show Earth he was better than any of these fakes. He was the greatest Fleet Admiral in the galaxy. He was honest and hardworking. He wanted to do his job well. These guys might pour all their problems on Fynn, but he didn’t care anymore. He’d show the Naval leadership on Earth what was happening and sift out the corrupt Admirals for good. It was time he finally made a difference. No more waiting for other people to take responsibility. If he wanted change, he needed to make it.

Fynn crossed his arms, glaring across the table at Brock. “What do I need to do?”

“I need you to go back to the Esslar system. Do another, more thorough inspection. I need you to find whatever you can that relates to these extraterrestrials and use it to learn more about them. What does their biology look like? How does their technology work? How do they think? What does their culture value? Anything that we can use as leverage against them. Then, you’re going to end this threat. This whole mess started in your jurisdiction. You’re going to be the one to end it. Are we clear?”

Make me do all the hard stuff while you sit back in your comfy chairs with a drink in your hand and not a worry in the world, thought Fynn. “We’re clear, sir.”

Brock nodded. “Good. And remember, don’t screw this one up.”

***

Ruins releases in just two days! I’m so excited for this story. It’s filled to the brim with action and some fantastic characters. If you haven’t read the first Fossil novel yet, make sure to check it out!

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Thanks for reading! I hope you’re looking forward to the release of Ruins as much as I am. I’ll see you on Wednesday!