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Back Truth of the Divine Save as PDF
Chapters (70)
  1. Also By Lindsay Ellis and Available From Titan Books
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Author’s Note
  7. Part 1: It’s A Fool Who Plays It Cool
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. Part 2: Love Has A Nasty Habit Of Disappearing Overnight
  15. 7
  16. 8
  17. 9
  18. 10
  19. 11
  20. 12
  21. 13
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. 20
  29. 21
  30. 22
  31. 23
  32. 24
  33. 25
  34. Part 3: A Crowd Of People Stood And Stared
  35. 26
  36. 27
  37. 28
  38. 29
  39. 30
  40. 31
  41. 32
  42. 33
  43. 34
  44. 35
  45. 36
  46. 37
  47. 38
  48. 39
  49. 40
  50. 41
  51. 42
  52. 43
  53. 44
  54. 45
  55. 46
  56. Part 4: Happiness Is A Warm Gun
  57. 47
  58. 48
  59. 49
  60. 50
  61. 51
  62. 52
  63. 53
  64. 54
  65. 55
  66. 56
  67. 57
  68. A Fiction Agreed Upon
  69. Acknowledgments
  70. About the Author

The date is February 2, 2008. This is the first time I see the alien entity who will later be named Nikola Sassanian, by me no less, and the mere sight of him turns my nerves to jelly in a visceral, animal way that I have never experienced before. This creature is beetle-black and over nine feet tall. His eyes are the size and shape of footballs and glow in the dark. His posture more resembles that of a carnivorous dinosaur than my own. His fingers are long enough to easily wrap around a human torso and more resemble the legs of a black widow spider than human digits. I’ve never known such terror as the first time I lay eyes on this alien being.

The date is February 4, 2008. Nikola has now been restrained by one of his own kind, I am alone with him, and he is vulnerable and frightened. By this point, he has found a way to communicate with me, and uses it to beg me for mercy. He knows how frightening he is to my eyes. He knows I can’t help but be afraid of him, and he fears I would do what any animal might do to a threat: destroy it. I still find him frightening, but he no longer turns my nerves to jelly, no longer evokes the instincts of my tree-dwelling ancestors at the sight of a predator to fight or flee. I communicate with him in kind: “I’m. not here to hurt you. I want to help you,” I tell him, and he doesn’t quite believe me, can’t quite understand why I would show compassion to something I instinctively find so terrifying. This is the day I give him his “human” name, Nikola, after the famed Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. It never occurs to me that this name might be the one attached to him when the rest of the world first sees him.

The date is February 9, 2008, and humanity is getting its first disastrous glimpse of an ETI, and at the same time humanity is also getting its first disastrous glimpse of a human trying to reason with said ETI. That human, of course, is me, tugging on Nikola’s forearm like he’s a child refusing to leave the toy store after his dad said it’s time to go. The people in attendance, at least those who are not in a panic, look on in bewilderment; the truly shocking thing is not the eldritch horror in the middle of Pershing Square, but the human berating him for being there in the first place.