Employee of the Year

Employee of the Year: Episode One

Four years ago, Earth became the latest member of a vast, galactic alliance. Governments and corporations are struggling to understand how to interface with alien worlds, but for the people of Earth, not much has changed. The novelty of First Contact has worn off. Almost no one has seen an alien or a spaceship. Theories abound that the whole thing was just a ruse by news networks to drum up ratings.

But Chet Eubanks believes in First Contact. From the moment he saw the footage of alien emissaries addressing a joint session of congress, he knew that he needed to figure out a way to get into space. He got his first job at his local fast food joint and started saving money for a starship. Spoiler: this doesn’t happen, but something else does.

Employee of the Year is the first episode in a sprawling space opera that follows Chet Eubanks from small town South Dakota into worlds never before explored by humankind. Author Jeremy M. Gottwig tells Chet’s story through a series of novelettes and novellas using a menagerie of human, animal, and alien characters. Each episode is a celebration of classic science fiction, Americana, and average, everyday people.