Ensign Clifford Peck was wondering what was going on there. All he was hearing was the one of the aliens who attempted to take over the earth, Lieutenant Commander Benson, then a man’s voice, then Carvalho’s voice, a woman’s voice. From what he heard there was a reference to a boy, who was the son of the man who was being held hostage by the alien.

Authors’ note: This is one of several alternate beginnings I had for The Specimen, this one takes place just before the events of Chapter one and was written for the National Novel Writing Month

Hi there, how are ya? Been a long time.
Seems like we’ve come a long way.
My but we learn so slow
And heroes they come and they go
And leave us behind, as if we’re supposed to know why.

The text below is the second half of Chapter 37 (with some additional text to make it interesting) and parts of it is in my entry to the NaNoWriMo web site. It is repeated here so that one would have a feel to what the novel is about. If after you have read this section (that is only 5 pages long) only and are totally confused by it then my job is done.

While the novel itself is not done, it is past the 50,000 word mark that NaNoWriMo considers as a valid winner (just in terms in the number of words) but it will answer some questions as to why the events in the excerpt happened.