Arch/Eternal - A phi-sci-fi novel-in-progress

Introduction & Table of Contents

May 19, 2023

Arch/Eternal - An Introduction*

*I would be remiss if I didn’t admit to outright theft — the idea comes from

Lisa Kuznak

on
Mechanical Pulp
, who pinned one of these at the top of her page for Pull Me Under, which, by the way, has been heroically entertaining so far. Go check it out.

OK, so here’s the deal.

I started writing Arch/Eternal a few years ago in an effort at creative rehabilitation. After a painful recognition that my inner artist had been slowly suffocating to death under the tyrannical demands of my inner critic for more than twenty years, I decided I needed to remember what writing as play felt like again. I needed to write something just for myself, and no one else.

That exercise, which lasted for many months, ended up sowing the seeds of this novel. So, once my relationship with writing no longer presented an existential threat to my mental health, I decided my next goal would be to finish a whole first draft. That took many, many more months, painstakingly teaching me the critical concept of creative fidelity. As I neared the finish line, I decided I could be trusted to continue writing and finishing things consistently enough to justify starting a Substack.

Eventually, though, after publishing a bunch of short stories and essays, I realized that a lot of my best work was buried in the messy first draft of this book no one was supposed to read.

What can I say, sometimes vanity is the best motivator.

When I started posting the first chapters, I was about a quarter of the way through a second, more polished draft of Arch/Eternal. But after around the 12th chapter, I ran out of second-draft-quality material. Suddenly I was spending a lot more time writing completely new material and revising the few usable scraps I could find in the first draft, leaving me much less time for other writing projects.

Until the last chapter is written and scheduled for publication, Dispatches from Inner Space is going to mostly just be a home for this book.

Thus, this.

For anyone interested in diving into the novel, new and old readers alike, the Table of Contents will serve as a reference for an admittedly meandering narrative. And while I promise to update both it and the Glossary of Characters and Terms (coming soon!) as frequently as I can, I can’t promise perfection, so I’m relying on you to tell me when I’ve missed something.

Ok then.

Table of Contents (with spoilery summaries)

Prologue
Rita Freeman, a respected scholar living on the alien planet Dodurro, meets with a powerful entity named Morning, about helping Earth through its current era of high-stakes transition. Despite a strict policy of non-interference, Morning agrees to act via a proxy on Earth.
Chapter 1 - Ancestors
Jackson River, born in Wind Valley, Arizona, shares his lineage and an early life marked by loss. After his mother disappeared into the desert, and his grandfather died early, he was raised by his grandmother, Nali, who was a scholar turned desert medic.
Chapter 2 - Stars and Snakes
On his eleventh birthday, Jackson gets a new tent from Nali. He and Andre, his best and only friend, decide to go camping and stargazing in the desert. Andre teases Jackson for his unbridled enthusiasm about astronomy, before the conversation about their dreams and aspirations turns earnest under the stars.
Chapter 3 - Long Walks in the Desert
Jackson and Andre are forced to venture further into the desert by bullies in a pickup truck. Far from home, Andre gets bitten by a snake, and Jackson has to leave him with the scant supplies they have left to go get help. Despite getting lost, he eventually makes it home, but not in time.
Chapter 4 - Jackson River meets Rita Freeman
In the aftermath of Andre's death, Nali grapples with faith, guilt, and blame. In her despair, she receives a letter from an old friend, Rita. Desperate for guidance, she pours her heart out to Rita, who decides to come visit.
Chapter 5 - The End of the Beginning
Rita stays with Nali and Jackson for a month. Due to Rita’s apparent agelessness, Nali suspects her of being an angel. On the last night of Rita’s stay, after Jackson has gone to sleep, Nali demands to know the truth. In response, Rita shows Nali her spaceship, and takes her aboard. But Jackson wasn’t asleep. He was watching. When neither of them mention the event over the next seven years, he eventually dismisses what he saw as a figment of childish fantasy.
Chapter 6 - Esther Quinn: A Team Player
As she attempts to summarize her life story, Esther Quinn acknowledges the fortunate circumstances of her upbringing, born to loving, well-educated parents, Viktor and Florence, with an older brother, Adam, who was an intellectual prodigy, and younger twin brothers. After she instigates a violent retaliation during a lacrosse match, her father tries to help Esther understand her natural gift for leadership, and that it’s up to her what she does with it.
Chapter 7 - Death by Dresscode
Esther recalls a conversation with Rita Freeman that sparks an understanding of her desire for power and change. When Rita takes brother Adam away to an elite program, Esther sees it as an opportunity to step out of his shadow. Years later, as a part-time student at a private school, Esther spearheads a rebellion. Despite initial victory, the consequences are devastating.
Chapter 8 - Amateur Espionage
Esther is sent to spend some time with Adam, in Cambridge. Unable to get him to open up about the mysterious work he’s doing, she decides to follow him. Using various YouTube-inspired spy tactics, she finds out where he works and breaks into his office.
Chapter 9 - Too Young to Know the Truth
Hiding in a secret room in Adam’s office, Esther observes a meeting between Adam and a potential investor about a cryptic, tech-based venture. After the meeting, Adam shows Esther an amulet—an astral lock—which he is using to communicate with aliens in preparation for Earth’s admission into a galactic community, called The Fellowship. To prove her maturity, Esther must return home and try to rebuild the bridges she burned.
Chapter 10 - Good Morning, Senator
Back home, Esther works to make amends with the board members she framed, forming amicable relationships, and begins networking. Securing a brief meeting with Senator Leitgartner, whom Adam had been trying and failing to reach, she overcomes his initial skepticism with a compelling vision of a decentralized, global democracy.
Chapter 11 - The Deep End
In Boston, Deek, another of Rita’s protegés, invites Jackson to a launch party for 'Cubensia', a robust network state project. On their way, Esther calls Deek for help. As soon as they get to her apartment, Jackson falls in love. Together, they finish assembling the “party favors” — burner phones loaded with crypto keys — then head downtown. On their way, they hit a roadblock due to a massive fire.
Chapter 12 - Search and Flee
During Cubensia's launch, an apparent attack obliterates their headquarters. Esther leads Deek and Jackson on a desperate and futile search, before they realize they themselves may be in danger, and flee across the river. There, a mysterious man who Jackson seems to know leads them all to Rita, who is waiting with a spaceship, ready to escape Earth.
Chapter 13 - Rita’s Ship
On Rita’s ship, they learn the devastating truth: Adam, and everyone else who was at the Cubensian launch party, is dead. In their shock and grief, Rita does her best to explain the existence of a galactic organization, the Fellowship, and its enemy, the Confederacy of Galactic Preservation. They learn about powerful beings called the Firstborn who are either archs (associated with the Fellowship) or eternals (associated with the Confederacy). Adam was bonded with an arch named Morning, who is currently missing.
Chapter 14 - Pizza Planet
Via an interstellar gateway on the “dark” side of the Moon, Rita takes the thee of them to a planet called Priezh. There, Rita leaves them in the care of a giant alien named Poe, who has agreed to do his best to prepare them for whatever lies ahead, until she returns in two weeks.
Chapter 15 - Standard Augmentations
Under the direction of Poe, Esther, Deek, and Jackson are led through passages glowing with bioluminescent ridges, and through vast empty rooms until they enter a small chamber with coffin-sized pods. Once inside, they receive "standard augmentations" — a process which causes incredible and unrelenting pain.
Chapter 16 - Stash Collection
Callan, Rita’s mysterious friend, must maintain a low profile after the attack on Boston, which he fears is the work of a Firstborn eternal. If so, he believes it could be a trap set to provoke a visitation from the archs. To avoid detection on his quest to get more information, he retrieves an advanced suit of armor from a hidden cache.
Chapter 17 - The Mystery Man and the Ciphergram
Callan visits an old acquaintance, Twio Vaird, who trades in Fellowship artifacts, and was recently visited by an unknown drifter who may know something about the attack on Boston. Vaird provides Callan with a ciphergram (in the form of a gold coin) that should help him get a message to the drifter. Callan then travels to New York covertly, utilizing his high-tech armor to hitch a ride on a commercial flight to and swim to the shore.
Chapter 18 - Marvy
In New York, there is a hidden node of the Terran Fellowship Network (TFN), where Callan meets an old flame named Margaret (Marvy) McEvoy. While she doesn’t know anything about the attack in Boston, she eventually agrees to help deliver Callan’s ciphergram to the unknown drifter, especially at Callan’s claim that the message is from Sky, one of the Three Archs.
Chapter 19 - Alien Chaperones
Esther wakes up terrified and disoriented in the presence of an alien named aYa. After a surprisingly delicious meal, aYa explains the physical augmentations she and her friends have undergone. They then join Deek and Jackson, who are with aYa's brother and another alien, Mowk, at the starting platform of a daunting training course, where the three friends are left to themselves. Instead of starting the course, they decide to take a beat and spend some time getting to know each other better.
Chapter 20 - Field Trip
Jackson tells Esther and Deek the story of how he met Callan, whose apparent wealth and mysterious behavior intrigued him enough to keep accepting invitations to hang out. This relationship culminates in Callan’s staging an elaborate opportunity for Jackson to take poetic revenge on Sean Claw, who was primarily responsible for Andre’s death.
Chapter 21 - The Big Dumb Obstacle Course
Esther, animated by a fierce desire for control, decides to undertake the grueling obstacle course in a gambit for leverage over their Fellowship “friends.” The physical and mental strain of the course is extreme, but the three friends help each other persevere. At the end, she collapses from exhaustion.
Chapter 22 - Jackson Somehow Biffs It with Esther
Because Jackson helped Deek finish the course first, he and Esther must repeat it in reverse, which is a mixed blessing for Jackson, who finds himself word vomiting through a discussion about the apparent existence of aliens and the nature of reality. After snagging on the topic of trust, Esther emotionally withdraws, and they finish the course separately.
Chapter 23 - Waiting for Roger
Hidden deep within the Himalayan node, Callan waits for the arrival of the unknown drifter — “Roger.” Instead, a bunch of well-equipped mercenaries show up. As they infiltrate the tunnel, their advanced drones and efficient movement suggest extraterrestrial technology. Callan attempts dialogue, but is met with gunfire. Eventually, a tangler weapon overwhelms his armor, leaving him vulnerable. He is shot at close range and loses consciousness.
Chapter 24 - Horror Show
Callan wakes up to find Marvy using a neutron blade to incapacitate the mercenaries. At his insistence, they attempt to patch up their hapless adversaries, but then, all at once, the men all suddenly die. Callan and Marvy chase a potential suspect, but he also dies before they can interrogate him. They discover a Firstborn artifact that contains a quantum entanglement, at the other end of which they fear there might be an eternal giving orders.
Chapter 25 - Strike Radius
After Jackson finally finishes the obstacle course (for the third time), Mowk and oyAyo lead him into a vibrant jungle within a vast hydroponic silo, where they let him rest in a shallow pool to rejuvenate his microbiome. Upon waking, he discovers that the microbiome he received during the “standard augmentations” gives him access to a robust augmented reality experience, which leads him to his first martial arts training session with Mowk.
Chapter 26 - Tune in next Friday

A Terran’s Guide to the Galaxy

Right now, there are only three essays in the Guide. There will likely be more in the future, but new mainline chapters will always take precedent, so no promises.

Start Here - What the Guide is, who it’s for, and a history of the Firstborn (arch and eternals).
The Great Mystery - Where did all these people come from? And the hypothesis of the Sowers.
Philosophical Foundations: Confederacy vs Fellowship - Or, what makes the Good Guys good and the Bad Guys bad?

Read it on Kindle

One last thing — if you, like many people, don’t love the idea of reading a novel on your laptop (or phone), but you do have and use some kind of Kindle…this is for you:

Send to Kindle (and here’s the Chrome extension)

Once you’ve installed the thing, you can just click a button and it goes straight to your Kindle. I’ve used it, it’s great. This way you can save chapters of Arch/Eternal to read later on your Paperwhite.

(This is also for the people who hate the white-text-on-black aesthetic of Dispatches, which I will not be changing anytime soon.)

Feedback time!

This is the part where you tell me if I’m missing anything. A vital detail in one of the summaries? A valuable bit of context for the novel overall?

Or, you know, whatever.