The Enemy Unseen...
In the Winter of El Niño, a violent storm shatters the tranquility of a small, uninhabited atoll south of Vanua Levu in the Fiji Islands. Amidst the chaos, death washes ashore, quietly settling on the bleached sand. A mysterious, ancient vessel, adrift for millennia, reluctantly releases its deadly secrets on this fateful February night.
Maggie and Brad Montana, fledgling associate professors on a long-awaited vacation in Fiji, stumble upon the aftermath of the storm. They discover a pearl-black cone at the water's edge, unveiling two bizarre instruments that set them on a worldwide quest for discovery. The journey takes them to the alien landscape of the Devil's Marbles in the Northern Territory of Australia, guided by Backpack Bill, a charismatic local tour guide.
As the Montanas unravel the secrets of the cone, their pursuit unwittingly triggers an ancient alien trap, revealing Earth's intellectual threshold to a distant star system. In a maddening environment, the couple deciphers a death message, inadvertently initiating a time-delayed sequence for the obliteration of the planet.
Hope dwindles as the Montanas grapple with their spatial sepulcher, attempting to halt the countdown. Just when all seems lost, Backpack Bill stumbles upon the ancient portal, inadvertently unlocking their prison. The Montanas emerge to find themselves in a changed world, their wristwatch showing a mere fifteen minutes elapsed since their imprisonment, while the calendar declares it is now 2023.
The couple, shocked by the four-year gap, must navigate a world transformed in their absence. Unsure if the sequence for termination continued after their release, the Montanas face the daunting task of reclaiming their lives amidst the echoes of time. Death Message explores ancient mysteries, the resilience of the human spirit, and the uncharted territories of a future shaped by the unintended consequences of their extraordinary journey.
10,000 years in the future, humanity has long since inhabited a region of space simply known as the "Habitable Zone of the Milky Way," or simply the "Habitable Zone." Many advancements have been made, though many are irrelevant to the billions - or perhaps more - of souls scattered across space. Everything operates under the silent, vague, but present scrutiny of the gods, with thaumaturgic talents dominating many human cultures in some capacity.
Churches reign over the post-Altarum territories a century after the Silence. The World, at least as far as many within the Habitable Zone are concerned, is a cold, thoughtless plane of existence.
It is within a single vessel, known as the CSS Groundskeeper, do things begin to influence the "Things To Be," as labeled by followers of the pantheon. Within this ship, two individuals will face the beginning of what is to be unimaginable horrors within an unforgiving universe, both with the same goal: do not succumb to the darkness.
Trepidation: Act I is the first story in what is to be a much longer novel detailing the story of two individuals in the cold universe. Act I may contain disturbing content for some readers.
Special thanks to
Lilian (liliantherat@bsky.social)
Elise S. (Seventh Bean)
Colt Klassic
C.W.K.
Peregrine
Nasturtium_K
Chaz
Shade
For inspiration and your characters for novel adaptation. Trepidation, Act I and future acts, would not be possible without all of you.
(I am awestruck at how well this has done. The read to vote ratio is something I never could have expected, and I thank both my friends and all new readers for current and continued support, even if the support is merely reading. Seriously, thank you.)