Embassy

S. Alex Martin

Chapters (35)

Embassy

By S. Alex Martin

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Martin, Scott Alexander.

Embassy / S. Alex Martin

p. cm. – (Recovery ; bk. 1)

SUMMARY: Arman Lance joins his planet’s Embassy Program and travels across the galaxy in search of the girl he fell in love with four years earlier.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4942-6436-9 (trade pbk.)

ISBN-10: 1-494-26436-6 (trade pbk.)

[1. Science-fiction. 2. Undil. 3. Recruits.] 1. Title

[fic]

October 2014

Independent Edition

To anyone who needs

a second chance

April 15

Undilaen Time

Standard Year 4319

A small metal box is propped up on the front of the podium, the podium everyone is looking at, except me. I can’t bear to. Instead, my eyes are fixed on the projection beside it: Father’s picture. He’s younger in this picture than he actually was, but only by a few years. His neat black hair is combed up, swished to one side, and a proud grin tugs at his mouth. His jaw is taut. He looks eager to embark on another journey. Even his eyes shine, dark brown and still so full of youth. Those eyes watch us, my mother, my toddler twin sisters…

And me. The last person to see him alive.

There’s a row of seats behind the podium, and beyond those, the desert. Funerals are normally held inside the city’s council chambers, but too many people showed up. Thousands. Arrangements had to be made out in the sweltering heat and constant, dusty wind. My eyes already itch and the funeral hasn’t even officially begun.

A man stands from one of the chairs and walks to the podium: General Orcher, Father’s supervisor and the owner of the Undil Embassy’s greatest space fleet. His dark gray uniform hangs stiffly on his shoulders. Gold buttons run up the middle of his uniform and on the cuffs of his sleeves, glinting in the sunlight.

“Ambassador Lance was renowned for his dedication to the Embassy Program,” Orcher says, trying to keep his eyes trained on the crowd. I can’t tell if he’s blinking a lot because of the wind, or if he’s holding back tears. “He made sacrifices few men would make. Though we remain as the Program’s youngest Embassy, it is because of him that we have flourished so greatly these last three decades.”

Orcher pauses. His eyes focus on me. My face goes rigid, and I drop my gaze. We’ve never formally met, though whenever Father was home—which wasn’t often—he’d tell me about Orcher. His resilience to the standard structure of station crews and expeditions…how he crossed a new frontier in the Embassy Program’s core mission of interplanetary codependence.