Award-winning screenwriters Todd and Tim Wynn take on their first novel.
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
A Good Day for a Bad Abduction
Earth hovered a hundred feet below . . . or maybe it was ninety-eight; the gauge that determined this number was improperly calibrated and not to be trusted. Denokin (pronounced DEN-uh-kin) didn’t need gauges, though. He was used to eyeing up the distance on his own. He was good at his job, which involved shuttling passengers back and forth between hidden space stations and vibrant resort destinations like Earth.
“Two minutes,” he called over his shoulder to the empty control room, as he glanced at the circular monitor on the console in front of him, which told him what he already knew: he was right on course, with a slow, controlled descent. Two minutes was one of a handful of English phrases he had picked up in the course of his work. He always liked to use local language whenever he could.
“I’ve got one,” he said, that being another English phrase he had mastered.
What he had got was an unsuspecting earthling on the ground below. Abduction of earthlings was a common element of his job, and the details of those abductions were usually fascinating to his passengers, so much so that he normally found several curious travelers peering over his shoulder during the abduction phase. However, there seemed to be no such curiosity on this trip. This particular group was a solemn bunch, far too preoccupied with their own concerns to care.
There were no beginner’s nerves or novice excitement left in Denokin’s work. He had done this many times before . . . three thousand, four hundred sixty-seven times to be exact, not that he or anyone else was keeping track. His skills had developed into second nature, and this would be a routine plucking. In fact, this particular pluck would be one of the easiest he’d ever come across. The curve of the land and the surrounding forest made sure of that.
Denokin was looking at a young couple lounging romantically on a large red-and-white blanket with black lines crisscrossing its surface. They were lying on their sides, facing one another, almost dead center in the middle of a clearing. Thick trees circled one side of the clearing, while the other side swelled into a large rolling hill, building a perfect secluded area for frolicking Love. It also happened to be a perfect spot for an abduction.
Denokin gripped the throttle as he eyed the display screen. His hand was identical to that of a human. So was his face, his build, all of him. He was thick, with broad shoulders, resembling the iconic image of a lumberjack. The only thing hinting at the fact that he might be an alien was the massive spaceship that surrounded him. Without that, he could blend into any local bar, post office, or grocery store.
To be perfectly scientific about it, Denokin was human, as were the rest of the ship’s passengers. They were all human . . . just not earthling. This may seem like a minor point, but don’t be mistaken. Humans come in vastly more varieties than the average earthling would think. Consider that there are over ten thousand species of birds on the planet. It can be natural to think that a bird is a bird, but imagine a pelican, standing next to a cardinal, standing next to a penguin. A bird is very much not just a bird. In the same way, a human is not just a human.
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