I don't own it.
Next chapter's the big one - and by 'big' I mean both 'the finale' and 'long'. Average chapter length so far has been around 500 words; the next chapter is 2,000. Here we go.
Arrival
They pull him out of retirement for this one. He's about to argue, to say his family needs him more, but his family gives him A Look and a firm Go save the world again. Come back to us.
So he goes (here: Montana, 2016).
Doctor Ian Donnelly is a civilian with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. He wears glasses. Has a penchant for borrowing digital camouflage jackets from their military escorts. Drinks whatever coffee he can find (milk, no sugar) without caring at all about the quality. And, at least to appearances, he enjoys working nights in the lab while his colleague Louise Banks, Doctor of Linguistics, falls asleep at her desk beside him.
In reality, he's something of a glorified protection detail. But he does wear glasses, and drink terrible coffee, and use a camo jacket like a second skin, and speak the language of multivariate calculus without breaking a sweat.
Archers are good at physics, and he's been brushing up on the quantum stuff since 2012.
He's very good.
They make a couple of small breakthroughs. He sees the way Louise spaces out, the heartbroken look in her eyes. Ian doesn't push. She'll tell him when she's ready, or not.
Then they get the big breakthrough. They go back up to talk to Abbott and Costello. Every instinct screams at him, but he can't pinpoint why until the bomb goes off. A single crazed thought flashes through his mind, Iraq Iraq Sanborn where's Wilson I need you, before the concussion force hits and everything goes black.
No double vision. No memory loss. It's nothing some painkillers and an hour with an ice pack won't fix.
But the military guys are striking camp. He and Louise are running out of time. She vanishes, and Ian's heart leaps into his mouth. He's too far away still when the pod comes to transport her to the alien ship. All he can do is wait and hope, checking the combat knife hidden at the small of his back and knowing the soldiers might try to stop her, to stop him. He hopes it won't come to that.
Louise is important, Ian knows that much. She's the key to this. Somehow.
She comes back in shock. He wraps a blanket around her, bundles her into the truck, hears the words I know why my husband left me. It's not the words that startle him, per se: he knows she's never been married, but precognition would be one of the least weird things he's seen in his lifetime. It's the look on her face when she turns to him, glowing, full of terrible hope.
But he's married already. And not to her.
He shivers.
Back at base, he leaves a satellite phone within her reach. Follows her to the tiny office, barricades them in. Offers himself as an obstruction for the guns while she makes the call.
And maybe Ian has his own flash of precognition, because he doesn't say it surprised me, meeting you.
He saves the world.
And he goes home to his family.