Embassy

By S. Alex Martin

Arman Lance wants nothing more than to join the Embassy Program and fly across the galaxy. He wants to find Ladia Purnell, a girl who visited his planet years earlier. They had fallen in love, but their time together was short. Arman has become determined to find her again -- to the point of obsession. He believes his happiness, and future, depends on it. Arman expected people in the Embassy to think he'd follow his father's footsteps. He also expected to slip into a simple routine, a path that would take him straight to Ladia. But he never expected anyone to stop him, especially not the ever-smiling adrenaline junkie Glacia Haverns, who decides it's her job to show Arman there's more to life than chasing desperate dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S. Alex Martin
• Release date: Mar 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311374738

S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin grew up fascinated with astronomy and reading Harry Potter. He's a coffee-holic, German Shepherd lover, and wants to travel the world someday. He has been writing for 10 years, and "Embassy" is his fourth full-length novel. He is 21 years old and attended college in Pittsburgh, PA.

Book preview

Part 1

The Recruits

Chapter One

June 6

Undilaen Time

Standard Year 4319

When I enter the examination room, it’s empty. I have knack for being early to these kinds of things. It’s not like I have anything better to do.

I sit in the last seat of the first row and stare at the desk panel. The Undil Embassy crest floats above the screen, cast by a small projector sticking up from the corner. I poke my finger through it, but the crest doesn’t move. You need tendril gloves if you want to interact with holograms, and there’s not a single pair in sight.

Every desk is the same: thin glass panels with the Embassy crest floating above them. At the head of the room is a larger panel: the proctor desk. Its projector displays the time, and currently shows 7:43 a.m.

At 7:49, the next person walks in and sits at the front of the room. I don’t think he even saw me. He’s older, maybe in his thirties. A Latecomer, someone who wants to join the Embassy years after graduating from Secondary.

More people arrive as the minutes drag on. Surprisingly, most of them are Latecomers. One of them sits down and waves his hand through the desk hologram and looks severely disappointed when it doesn’t spin. He looks at the girl he walked in with and frowns. Then he sees me watching and waves.

I drop my eyes and don’t look at him again. Who is he? I’ve never seen that guy in my life.

The last person walks in exactly at eight o’clock, and it’s none other than Glacia Haverns, or rather, the Glacia Haverns. Her parents own a private textile and tailoring shop, and as far as I know, they don’t have any direct connections to the Embassy.

Glacia is notorious for being Cornell’s adrenaline junkie. In Secondary, she aced every flying simulation the Officials gave her, most of which exceeded the abilities of every other student. But she’s most famous for her Hologis skills. The girl holds every single arena record. She’s ambidextrous, and will literally jump off the wall to pelt you in the face with a Hologis sphere. I know that from experience.

Multiple experiences.

8:01. The proctor is late. The Placement Report was supposed to start at eight o’clock. The guy who waved to me is thinking the same thing. His legs are shaking, and he keeps folding and unfolding his arms. At one point, he leans through his hologram to try and see out the door.

People start mumbling and whispering ‘where are they?’ to each other. Aside from Glacia, I don’t recognize anyone, so nobody whispers to me. Good, because I don’t feel like talking to them. I just want to get this over with and find out my score. I need to join the Embassy. I don’t have any other choice. Mother and the twins are counting on me to provide support.

And Ladia is waiting for me on Belvun.

Five minutes late…ten minutes late. The twitchy guy stands up and jumps to the door. He looks both ways and suddenly sprints back to his desk, nearly colliding with the black-haired guy in the first row.

A woman rushes through the door: Lieutenant Victoria Hofhen, one of Father’s colleagues who works with General Orcher. Her long braid swings over her shoulder as she drops into the seat behind the proctor’s desk and taps the panel to activate the Placement Report.

Sorry I’m late, she says, clearly out of breath from running. I was just down the street. Stopped at the…um…

Abandoning her explanation, Victoria swipes her ID across the panel. The Embassy crest vanishes from above my desk and a new display appears, asking me to log my personal information. A confused murmur moves around the room.

"Gloves! Victoria realizes, straightening up quickly before bending down and checking through the desk’s drawers. They’re somewhere around here. Gloves…gloves…aha!"

She scrambles around the room, haphazardly handing pairs of tendril gloves to people. I strap on mine and enter the information. When I finish, the display disappears and the projector deactivates. The rest of the exam will be taken on the glass panel so that nobody’s answers are left floating in the air for everyone to see.

Right. The Embassy wants five Recruits from the cities this year, Victoria says, her hand hovering near a holographic icon that reads ‘Begin,’ except backwards. "You have ninety questions, two essays, and three hours. Unanswered questions are marked wrong. Your essays will be judged by Embassy Officials."

My chance to see Ladia rides on this exam. The last four years of my life have come down to the next three hours. I breathe out to calm my nerves. It shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve worked too hard and lost too much sleep to fail now. Ladia is counting on me. It’s the only way we can be together again.

Start now.

Victoria taps the icon, and my panel lights up with a list of questions. I touch my finger to one and stare at it.

Where did the Embassy Program originate, and in which Standard year?

Too easy. I type Earth and Standard 3092.

My eyes flick down the page: In the absence of a city’s ambassador, who is designated to oversee all duties held in his domestic office?

I write City Exchange Secretary.

On to the next.

A buzzer sounds off at the end of the three hours and Victoria touches her screen to lock all the submissions. I finished my essays twenty minutes ago and have been sitting here, counting the seconds.

The Recruits will be announced publicly, and I will personally notify you of your scores. Victoria sits back in her seat and motions at the door. Have a nice day, people.

Everyone stands and files into the hall. As soon as they clear the room, people start muttering about how disorganized and unreliable Victoria was, and that it’s a mystery how she got chosen to proctor such an important exam.

As the crowd disperses, I find myself a few steps behind Glacia. Her dark-blonde hair swishes down her back. She has a sort of swagger to her step, thumbs jammed in her pockets. It’s annoying. She’s always been like this, ever since the first time I met her at that stupid food dis—

Hey.

I realize Glacia’s holding the outer door open for me. I grab it and look past her, searching the parking lot for my car.

How’d you do? she asks.

I shrug.

You probably did fine, she goes on, walking right beside me now. "That one guy in front of me kept shaking his leg. It was so distracting."

I force myself to laugh.

Glacia sees her brother, Jaston, who’s standing near his car with his fiancé. She veers toward them, then spins around and shakes her fingers at me.

Wanna get ice cream? Celebrate finishing, you know? A solid four years we’ll never get back.

Can’t.

I spot my car and start toward it. Glacia stays where she is, looking expectantly at me.

Come on, she insists. I’ll even pay.

Don’t have time, sorry.

That’s a lie. I have more than enough time, and I’ll probably spend it doing nothing.

As usual.

My neighborhood is quiet except for the rush of hot wind and the distant noises of maglev cars gliding along the Main Throughway toward Cornell.

Inside my house, Flavia and Erinn are running around, giggling their heads off, and Mother is sitting on the floor. The twins squeal in delight when they see me and run faster, feet stamping on the padded floor.

How was it? Mother asks.

I nod enthusiastically and crouch beside her.

It was good.

She smiles, but her lips haven’t curled the same way in the two months since Father died.

Are you hungry?

Yeah.

I stay with my sisters while Mother is in the kitchen. I pay attention to their game: they aren’t just running in circles, they’re playing tag. Whenever one touches the other, they reverse direction and resume the chase.

Mother comes back into the front room. The twins pile into her lap, licking their lips and begging for a bite of the sandwich she brought me.

Do you have plans tonight? Mother asks.

I was going to stay here.

Like always.

My eyes drift over to the door and stay fixed on it. I have two distinct memories of that door. The first was four years ago, the summer Ladia Purnell entered my life. The second memory is the morning Father walked out because of the emergency on Belvun, only days after he met Erinn and Flavia for the first time.

A hovercraft roars above the house, engines flaring in the dry air. Lieutenant Hofhen must be leaving Cornell. I’d love to fly in one of those. Leaves you breathless, seeing it all from up there, Father once said. Humbles you, even.

I still don’t believe that. My life gets worse no matter how hard I fight. Just when I think I’m back in control, it crashes down. How can I appreciate not dying with Father? Where has it left me? There are no more stories to hear, no more adventures to imagine. If I’m accepted into the Embassy, I’ll have to make my journey alone.

Chapter Two

It’s been four days since I took the Placement Report. The results will be announced at eight o’clock, only minutes away. If my holotab doesn’t light up, I don’t know what I’ll do with my life. I have no other plans.

I need to escape.

Mother cuts apart the last of her Killari beef sausages and swallows them one by one. I’ve not sure if she knows what goes on in my head. She never shows any sign that she recognizes how desperate I am to leave. Maybe I’m just good at covering it up. But it pains me to think about leaving them behind, her and the twins, because it’s not them I’m trying to escape.

I hope she doesn’t think that.

7:58…7:59.

I stare at the time projected over the table and count each second in my head. 20, 21, 22. The clinking of Mother’s fork and knife stops. She’s finished eating, and is watching the time, too. Is she hoping for my recruitment? Or does she secretly want me to stay so she doesn’t have to lose me?

54, 55, 56. My eyes are dry, so I blink. In that split second, the time changes to eight o’clock. I was counting too slow.

And then my holotab lights up.

The mini projectors hidden along the edges of the device produce a display above the screen: Lieutenant Victoria Hofhen, Embassy Official.

"Answer, I say in a low, choked voice. Mother is looking the other way. Hello?"

Hello, Mr. Lance, says the voice of Lieutenant Hofhen, who seems much calmer than she did at the exam. You’ll be pleased to know you passed the Embassy Placement Report, and were one of two people who received a perfect score. The Chancellor’s council has selected you to be one of Cornell’s Recruits. Congratulations.

Thank you.

It’s my pleasure, Mr. Lance. Please meet me at Cornell’s docking terminals by eight o’clock tomorrow morning.

I will.

Have a good day, Mr. Lance.

The line disconnects. Mother still isn’t looking at me. I’m leaving. I am actually leaving. Tomorrow morning I’m boarding a hovercraft to the Embassy and from there I can board an expedition to Belvun and be rid of this planet once and for all.

I’m proud of you, Arman.

Mother is looking at me, her eyes red and cheeks going flush.

You’ve worked so hard for this, she says, nodding quickly to hold back tears. H—he’d be so proud.

Mother stares at me for several silent seconds. I don’t know what to say, because ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you’ don’t seem like they’d be enough. I feel like I’m back in the hospital, after the crash, when I could only stare back at her, unable to move or speak because of the drugs that numbed my body to keep the pain at bay. Mother had squeezed my hand and run her fingers through my hair, afraid to look away from me and follow the doctors to where they were keeping Father’s body. I had wanted to say how sorry I was, and that I was alive, and that Father asked about her and the twins. I wanted to say so much, but was unable.

Now I don’t know what to say.

Mother’s eyes flick to my holotab. Have the others been announced?

I drag the device toward me and activate it. Using a stylus, I scroll to the Embassy’s news feed and find the Recruit selection. Cornell is the fifth city listed.

Glacia Haverns—she passed?—Ellin Mistin, John Mistin—interesting, brother and sister—and Michael Rafting.

The other three Recruits are Latecomers. Glacia and I are the youngest of the group.

At least you’ll know someone, Mother says, trying to sound cheerful.

Knowing someone isn’t the same as being friends.

I ran out of those years ago.

That night, after Mother and I put the twins to bed, I finish packing. I gather up my essentials, then examine the bookshelf. Before I bought a holotab, Father collected books from all around the galaxy so I could read about the Embassy Program and the planets associated with it, but I haven’t looked at them since before Secondary.

I find 48 Light-Years, a sort of encyclopedia of all the occupied planets in the Embassy Program. If it’s inhabited, it’s part of the Embassy, Father once told me. If it’s part of the Embassy, it’s safe.

I scan the rest of the shelf. Father gathered fictional works, history books, and even technical and political journals.

Next I pick up Unity at Last, which describes how the modern Embassy Program came to be. It also happens to be the book I studied the most in Secondary. This thing isn’t small by a long shot. And at the bottom of my shelf, a small journal is wedged between Gravitational Physics—I hated that class—and Objectives of the Old War. I shimmy the journal out and read the cover: Earth as It Was. Father gave it to me for my birthday five years ago, but I never read it. I toss it in the trunk with my other books and seal the lid shut.

Mother wakes up before me and makes breakfast. Except for the clanks of our forks and knives, we eat in silence. Hard gulps accompany every bite she swallows. I look up and smile, hoping to reassure her…hoping to see her smile before I leave…but my attempts procure nothing more than a sad droop of her lips.

Let’s get the twins, I say after we finish eating.

Mother just nods.

When I wake Flavia, she rubs her eyes and stretches. Erinn sits up, caught in a daze. Her hair puffs out and I rustle it back into place.

Mother gets them ready for the morning while I pack my trunk and backpack in the car. I help fasten the twins in their seats, then sit in the driver’s side and wait. I don’t drive until Mother is settled in: I want to give her all the time she needs.

And I try to forget that I’m leaving them.

I drive out of our neighborhood. Merge onto the Main Throughway. Head toward Cornell. To the right, I can already see the distant docking terminal and the hovercraft that will fly me to the Embassy. Mother stares at it. The twins stay quiet, but every time I glance in the rearview mirror, I see Erinn looking at me, her face unnaturally stiff.

We reach the intersection where the crash happened. My arms tense up as I turn to the right and pass the spot of the crash. Then I relax my fingers around the steering wheel and refuse to look in the mirror again until the intersection is out of sight.

The road curves away from Cornell. A few hundred yards of cracked desert separate the city from the docks. Three cars are already parked in the circular lot. A guard confirms my identity and lets me pull through.

After we park, I get out and sling my backpack over my shoulder, then activate my trunk’s hover setting and tow it behind me. Flavia and Erinn each grab one of Mother’s hands. We step inside the terminal and ride an elevator to the main level.

Victoria is standing in the waiting area with Glacia and her family. Jaston and his fiancé stand to the side to let Glacia and her parents huddle close together.

When Victoria sees us, she hurries over, her black braid swinging under her arm.

I’m Victoria Hofhen, she tells Mother. I’ll be in charge of Arman for a while.

Mother steps behind me and massages my arms.

He’s ready.

Victoria smiles gently. I know he is.

She points over at a man sitting alone on a bench. He doesn’t notice us looking at him.

Mr. Rafting was the other Recruit who scored perfectly on the Placement Report, in case you’re wondering. Cornell’s got a dedicated batch this year. Received the highest average on Undil.

The elevator opens again and two people walk out: the brother and sister. Ellin—the sister—looks worried, but her brother seems much more excited. I recognize him as the twitchy guy from the Placement Report. His eyes dart around the room, taking in everything they possibly can. He raps his sister on the shoulder and points at a holographic display that flashes our departure time to the Embassy. His sister lays a hand on his arm and guides him toward us.

I’m John, the guy says the moment he’s within ten feet of Victoria. He eagerly offers his hand to her, which she shakes. "This is my sister. I got a higher score," he adds in an excited whisper.

Ellin finally cracks a smile, albeit a small one.

Hello, Lieutenant.

A hand flies up in front of my face.

Hi, I’m John.

He flashes his teeth in a wide grin, eager to shake my hand. I wonder if he remembers me staring at him before the exam.

Arman.

I shake his hand. His palm is sweaty from outside. Ugh.

Ready, Arman? We’re all going to the Embassy together. We’ll be heroes! A dreamy expression settles on his face. Imagine that. Exploring the galaxy… Saving the day… That’d be the life, huh? I could get used to—

Hey, John. Let’s go meet Michael, Ellin says, placing her hand on his arm again to pull him away. I think Arman wants to say bye to his family.

She walks him over and John introduces himself for the third time. I’m sure everyone in the whole building knows his name now.

Victoria starts to back away. We’re leaving soon now that everyone’s here, so saying goodbye is probably best.

I turn and look at Mother. She tightens her mouth, verging on tears. I hug her.

I’ll watch the Induction Ceremony, she whispers beside my ear.

I know.

And you can always come home on breaks.

I squeeze her tighter. I will.

She lets go and I crouch in front of the twins. Tears paint bright trails on their squishy cheeks.

I’ll bring back stories, okay?

Flavia sniffles and rubs her hands under her eyes. I mith you, she says.

I kiss her cheek. I haven’t even left yet, silly.

Erinn wraps her little arms around my neck, then backs up and presses her fingers together. Her innocent eyes don’t look at me, but at her hands, and she’s slow to say anything at all.

Ith…ith Daddy wheely not going to be with you?

All the color drains from my face. Icy dread swamps over the heat in my cheeks. If ever I didn’t want to leave Undil—if ever I thought I might want to give up—it’s now, right after those words left Erinn’s mouth.

I keep my voice steady. I have to.

No, he’s not there.

I hug her as her own set of sniffles takes over. She needs to know I’m not going away forever, that the world won’t keep falling apart.

When I stand up, Mother takes Erinn’s hand. We look at each other one more time, but neither of us can find words. She reaches for Flavia’s hand and walks away. They step inside the elevator, and the doors close.

I join Victoria in front of the ramp to the hovercraft. Ellin, John, and Michael already boarded. We wait for Glacia, who is hugging her brother.

Have fun out there, kiddo, he says to her.

Glacia nods into his shoulder and lets go of him. He walks to his fiancé and parents, and Glacia comes to the gate. Victoria leads us up the ramp. We go back outside for a moment, but the hovercraft is nearby so the heat doesn’t torture me.

Walk down the hall and you’ll find the lounge, Victoria tells us. She angles toward a different entrance hatch. I’ll get you when we’re almost to the Embassy.

Glacia walks ahead of me. Finding the room isn’t difficult because John’s voice carries down the hall. It’s designed for comfortable travel: there are couches, a projector, and a large window to stare out, which is currently facing west, toward the rising sun.

Ellin and Michael are sitting on separate couches, and John has his palms pressed to the long window. I sit on the opposite end of Michael’s couch, while Glacia sits with Ellin.

The floor shudders when the hovercraft lifts off the platform. The other crafts on the dock shrink away. As we rise higher, I realize how small Cornell really is. There’s Secondary, near the center of the city, and there’s Wallace Emerson’s ice cream plaza across the street. Gray Wall’s industrial complex stands in the distance, along Cornell’s empty eastern border.

The city disappears, then the neighborhoods. Now the desert dominates our view, and it’s nothing special. Mesas break the plain here and there, a mirage shimmers near the horizon, but for the most part, the land is cracked and empty and worthless.

So you guys are fresh from Secondary? Ellin asks Glacia, who nods in response. Cool. I got out four years ago, a year after John.

Hearing his name pulls John from the window.

She’s my little sis, he says, plopping down next to Ellin on the couch. Wouldn’t know it, would you? She has stunning good looks, I have the ingenuous brains.

"Ingenious," Ellin corrects him.

He shoves her shoulder and she tips sideways, grinning at him.

See that? Even thinks she’s a know-it-all.

John stretches his arms and lays them over