Transformation

by Michael Ocheskey

  The Gemstone Chronicles

  Transformation

  Michael Ocheskey

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Michael Ocheskey, revised edition.

  Original copyright © 2006 by Michael Ocheskey under the name The Gemstone Chronicles: The King and the Mermaid

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  ISBN 978-1-950005-03-1

  Cover art by Michael Ocheskey.

  Also by Michael Ocheskey

  Virtual Me Series

  Virtual Me: Valkyrie

  My Damned School Days Series

  Body

  Author Notes

  Thank you for purchasing The Gemstone Chronicles: Transformation. This novel is a retelling of a novel I wrote which was published back in 2006. At the time, it was the first novel I’d written and I hadn’t written anything fictional in years, having spent the majority of my time writing essays and doing other technical writing for college.

  I was inspired to write this novel after a knee injury required a hiatus from school. However, my excitement to write and get my story to the masses made me careless and I did not do the proper publishing research.

  I ended up getting a contract with a publisher that had a bad reputation because I did not research the market well. They advertised themselves as a traditional publishing house but were actually a print-on-demand service that did little for their authors and kept trying to sell the book to their authors instead of to potential readers.

  The truth is, in my eagerness, not only did not research well enough, but also did not write well enough. The novel, which was entitled The Gemstone Chronicles: The King and the Mermaid, so named because the publisher didn’t like the title I had and made me change it, was not ready for publication. Had the publisher been a true commercial publisher as they claimed to be, my book would have been denied publication.

  The story was intriguing and the characters engaging, but the story was raw. It hadn’t been well edited and since it was my first work of fiction in years, my fictional writing abilities were not up to par with what they had been previously.

  The story was intended to be a series, but after my fallout with the publisher, my contract was cancelled and the book removed from circulation. After only selling 39 copies, the series was terminated.

  I later came to realize that the story did not have enough context to be a large series as each book would simply have been a retelling of the same plot in new locations. I came up with the idea to rewrite the story as a duology instead to give readers, and myself, a sense of closure.

  I wanted those who’d read the original story to have a chance to find out how it ends, but more importantly, I wanted to be able to provide them with a more well-rounded and higher quality story.

  Many scenes have been entirely revamped to improve upon the original narrative without altering the story.

  This novel has been a thorn in my side for years as I’ve continued to write new stories and improved my skills. Every few years I would come back to the story and make tweaks, but I could not release the novel until at least ten years had passed to ensure that if the original publisher still had the contract, I would once again have my rights back.

  While I may have despised the publisher for falsifying themselves, the concept of self-publishing or print-on-demand publishing is not one I look down upon. In today’s society, where eBooks and other forms of digital media reign supreme, self-publishing is a way for more artists to showcase their work and POD provides publishing companies and independent authors with a cost-effective alternative to printing large quantities of books that may or may not sell.

  As such, I’ve chosen to rerelease this updated novel and the sequel in an eBook only format. The new publisher, Siren Song Publishing, is a publishing house started by me with the hopes that it will become a place for authors from all walks of life to share their stories with the world. Siren Song Publishing is actively seeking new authors for fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels for all age groups. If you would like more information, check out SirenSongPublisher.com and visit their submissions guidelines for further information.

  I hope you enjoy this newly updated version of The Gemstone Chronicles with its new title, Transformation.

  Fateful Flight

  Time marches forward and all too soon we are grown. This thought was prominent in his mind as twenty-three-year-old Thomas Cornell stood confidently in the airport terminal, hugging his family goodbye.

  His little sister stood clutching to his mother's side as they both cried. His father was hiding behind the others, trying to trap his tears before they could fall. Thomas knelt down and kissed his sister on the forehead, wiping away her tears at the same time he cradled her head in his hands.

  “Everything will be fine, Alice,” Thomas consoled his sister. “It’s only a year. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  He would miss his sister most of all. She was so young and shy. She had difficulty making friends. He played with his sister often to help encourage her and build up her confidence. All he could hope for now was that she would find the strength to make friends once he was gone.

  After saying farewell to his family, Thomas Cornell turned in anticipation to face the journey ahead of him. A journey which would be the starting point for the rest of his life; his first step to true independence. Thomas ran his long, slender fingers through his flowing, blonde hair nervously.

  A sigh of fear and longing escaped despite his best efforts to hold it in. The sapphire glow of his eyes flashed in the sun’s reflection as he gazed out the airport window toward the airplane that would carry him to his future. He imagined he could see the sea in the distance.

  Thomas was a great surfer whose second home resided on the sea. He would spend every moment of his free time at the beach. His body build was perfect for surfing. He was tall and lean with barely an ounce of fat on his body, giving him little wind resistance. He could reach speeds on his surfboard that were the envy of all his friends.

  He wasn’t very muscular, though he had enough to get by. He was an intelligent person and diligent worker with top grades in all his college courses who had trained his body to meet his needs. He cared more for toning his muscles to maximize his flexibility, stamina, and aerodynamics than to impress women with overgrown, bulky muscles. He could move his body in ways that would make the average man scream in agony.

  There was only one deterrent to Thomas’ surfing abilities. Thomas wore glasses. Due to the sensitivity of his eyes, Thomas wasn’t able to wear contact lenses. His glasses tended to either fog up at inopportune moments or collect so much water that it blurred the sea around him when he surfed.

  Having just received his Bachelor’s degrees in both Cultural Anthropology and Archeology from California State University, Thomas was looking forward to the world of adventure and history that awaited him.

  Dr. Oliver Stone, a renowned archeologist, had graciously consented to receive Thomas as an intern for one year. During that time, Thomas would receive a large amount of firsthand experience in excavating a dig site, properly categorizing, cataloging, and restoring artifacts, along with many other aspects of anthropology and archeology which had previously been offered to him only in limited doses at such a large university.

  Thomas was overflowing with excitement a
s he boarded the plane. He'd always wanted to explore an ancient civilization and now he would get his chance. Thomas’ thoughts wandered as he handed over his ticket and waved goodbye to his family one last time.

  Alice was still crying in her mother’s arms. His parents gave him a final wave and Thomas took that first step onto the airplane. The first step to his future felt heavy, but as his nervous tension washed away each of his steps grew lighter, carrying him gracefully toward his seat.

  Thomas pondered his past and the journey he'd undertaken to make it this far. All those years of schooling were tough at times, but every time he reminded himself of his goals he found the strength to endure. His family hadn’t wanted him to take the internship. They worried they'd be losing their baby boy.

  Thomas wanted to become as famous as Dr. Stone someday and he knew this internship was the first step along the long road to success.

  A sudden pain flashed through Thomas’ head.

  Jarred back into reality from his flights of fancy, Thomas witnessed a little girl standing on the seat in front of him, crying, among the thousands of tiny black dots now floating in front of his eyes. Held firmly in the little girl’s hand was an empty, pink backpack with a unicorn decal on the front. The overhead compartment was still open, her backpack lifted high in the air where she had tried to stow it. Thomas' lap was cluttered with around ten children's books, a large box of crayons, which was probably what had caused the bruise, and Thomas’ bent glasses.

  A woman who looked like a much older version of the little girl rushed forward. “I’m so sorry, sir. Are you alright? Jenna! Apologize to that man!”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Thomas replied, rubbing the top of his head. After gathering all the materials on his lap, he looked up at the little girl, offering the pile to her.

  “Your name is Jenna, right? Here you go, Jenna. Oh, please don’t cry. It was an accident....” Thomas consoled Jenna, mistaking her tears over her backpack for apologetic tears. Thomas began desperately searching for a change of subject, something that would calm Jenna down. “So you like to read, do you?”

  “Y-y-yes,” Jenna choked out through her sobs. She glanced at her mother, and seeing her piercing expression, added, “I’m sorry, Sir. My backpack broke.”

  Sure enough, the pack in Jenna’s hand was torn open on the bottom. Thomas realized the true reason behind Jenna’s tears and half-grinned, reminded of Alice.

  “You don’t need to apologize for that. It was an accident. And see?” Thomas smiled a rather sheepish grin and pretended to flex his muscles while grunting, leaving them loose and flabby. This brought a small chuckle out of Jenna, but left his head spinning. The bump on his head must have been bigger than he'd thought. “I’m totally fine. I’m always having things dropped on my head.

  “I have a little sister who’s eleven and she’s the clumsiest person I’ve ever met. This isn’t the first time my glasses have been bent.” He picked up his glasses and examined them. “I bought these frames special. See? Easy to bend, but hard to break. Tada!” Taking the rims of the glasses in his hands, Thomas fiddled with them, flexing them this way and that until they returned to their original state. “Good as new.”

  “Thank you, Sir. You seem good with children,” Jenna’s mother noted while she lifted Jenna off the seat she was still standing on and set her down beside her.

  “There is no need to keep calling me Sir. My name is Thomas. Thomas Cornell. Nice to meet you. And you are?” Thomas held out his hand for the woman to shake, and smirked slightly. A random thought of trying to teach his dog to shake when he was a child popped into his head as random thoughts often do.

  “I’m Rachael. My daughter and I are heading to Africa to visit my husband. He’s currently there on a digging assignment. He’s in charge of the entire site!” Rachael beamed at the announcement, as if she had been dying to say that since she first approached Thomas. “His birthday is coming up in a week, so we thought it would be a good idea to surprise him.”

  “Wait a minute.” Comprehension dawned through the still-thrumming pain in Thomas’ head. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Rachael Stone, would it? Your husband isn’t Dr. Oliver Stone by any chance?”

  “Why yes! How did you...oh! You are the new intern my husband told us he was getting. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I only wish we could have met in a less painful manner.”

  Since the airplane had few passengers and the seats on either side of Thomas were vacant, Rachael and Jenna gathered their belongings and moved next to Thomas.

  The plane ride from that moment on was a rather eventful one. Thomas was highly inquisitive when speaking with Rachael and Jenna in hopes of learning more about Dr. Stone and his lovely family. It occurred to Thomas that the more connections he had from the start the better his career might be.

  Rachael and Jenna seemed just as interested in getting to know the man Oliver spoke so highly of. Thomas read Jenna all of the children's stories that she had brought with her, finishing off with Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid as the plane took off again from New York, heading over the Atlantic.

  “I wish I could meet a mermaid one day.” Jenna said, sighing longingly after Thomas had closed the book. “Mommy keeps telling me there is no such thing, but it would be nice if they were real.”

  “Yes, it would,” Thomas decided to humor her a little, not believing a word he was saying. “But you know…there is still a chance that mermaids exist. The oceans are so big and deep that we still don’t know what lives inside them. You may get to meet a mermaid one day as long as you believe.” He winked playfully at Jenna and Rachael snorted.

  “Don’t tell her that!” Rachael’s eyes burned with accusation, but she smiled warmly in spite of herself. “Really! I can see why Oliver speaks so highly of you. You two are practically identical, both of you filling Jenna’s head with those fantastical stories. It’s no wonder she believes all of the things she reads in her fairytales with you two telling her they are real.”

  Thomas’ face stretched like a rubber band in an un-abashed smile and he laughed. “I never told her it was real, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be real. There are so many things that man doesn’t know yet. We haven’t explored the depths of the oceans. We still don’t know what resided deep within our past except through speculation and oral tradition, which can be highly unreliable and easily distorted. And we haven’t even been outside of our solar system.

  “Those who obstinately state aliens don’t exist, mermaids and sea monsters are just mythology, dragons are pure fantasy, fairies are nothing more than legend, among many other accusations, are just closing their minds to the possibilities of something beyond our understanding existing somewhere in this universe.

  “Human beings have always kept our minds closed to possibilities beyond our comprehension, but look at all the things man has said were impossible that are now accepted as common knowledge. There may very well come a day in which we find bones of a dragon, find a nest of fairies deep in a rain forest, build a spaceship that will let us travel to another galaxy where we are able to interact with another intelligent race of beings…or communicate with merfolk deep under the ocean.”

  Thomas’ rant started out in an almost serious manner, but by the end it had grown into a playful satire. Still, though he was half-joking by the end, a small part of him began to question the truth in his statement. The entire reason he became an anthropology and archeology major was because people really didn’t know enough about themselves, their history, and their surroundings and he wanted to uncover those hidden gems of knowledge.

  Unable to find a good counterargument to Thomas’ rant about the unknown, Rachael just shook her head and changed the subject.

  Meanwhile, in the cockpit, the captain was trying desperately to contact radio tower. It had gotten to the point where his fear caused him to forget about protocol entirely. His voice rose to a near scream as he called, “Radio tower! Please respond! Radio tower, we
are having engine trouble. Mayday! We’re losing altitude and fuel pressure quickly. We’re leaking fuel from both engines. Radio tower, do you copy? We need to....”

  Radio tower never heard what they needed to do. At that precise moment the control panel exploded, breaking the front windows and sending large shards of glass toward each of the plane’s engines.

  Fighting the immense pressure trying to suck them through the window, the pilot and copilot climbed into the passenger compartment and sealed off the cockpit. They turned around to inform the passengers of the situation, but never got the chance.

  Two more explosions erupted from the plane’s wings. The shards of glass from the cockpit had gotten caught in the turbines, sent sparks in all directions, and ignited the jet fuel from the leaking engines. The force of the explosion split the plane in two.

  Through what could only have been called a miracle for everyone on board, there were no passengers sitting near the wings and no one was killed during the explosions.

  However, now the real fight had begun. Thomas felt something rush through his body at that exact moment. Adrenaline? But it didn’t feel like the usual rush he got while surfing.

  As if guided by some invisible force, Thomas knew exactly what he needed to do. “Everyone, grab hold of your seats! Don’t let go!” He yelled as people were being forced toward the gaping hole where the front of the plane had been merely seconds before. Instructions flowed from his lips as though he was a puppet and some ventriloquist was using him as needed.

  “HELP ME!”

  Thomas turned toward the piercing scream to see a horrified Jenna holding tight to a large bar which had only seconds before been a support beam. She was dangling outside the plane, barely able to keep hold with her poor grip.

  Without thinking of the consequences, Thomas let go of his seat and soared toward the opening head first. As he approached Jenna, he stretched out his arms, rolled over onto his back, and hooked his legs around the seat in front of Jenna. Stretching to the point where his muscles felt like they were tearing, Thomas grabbed hold of Jenna’s arms.