"No!"

"'No!'
"Rebo Legnor's-Child, Marchwarden of Gilrigor, sprang back from the picture as if it had come alive...
"David Falkayn let fall the sheet of paper on which he had made the sketch."
-Poul Anderson, "The Three-Cornered Wheel" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 199-261 AT I, p. 201.

"Grand Admiral Syranax hyr Urnan, hereditary Commander-in-chief of the Fleet of Drakho, Fisher of the Western Seas, Leader in Sacrifice, and Oracle of the Lodestar, spread his wings and brought them together again in an astonished thunderclap. For a moment, it showered papers from his deck.
"'No!' he said. 'Impossible! There's some mistake.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Man Who Counts IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 337-511 AT I, p. 339.

"'No.'
"Master Merchant David Falkayn stepped backward in startlement...
"Morruchan Long-Ax, the Hand of the Vach Dathyr, leaned forward on his dais."
-Poul Anderson, "Day of Burning" IN David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 209-272 AT p. 213.

Each of these narratives grabs its reader's attention by beginning in media res, in the midst of things. We must read on to learn what has happened before. Each also introduces a high-ranking alien: Marchwarden, Admiral and Hand. Finally, David Falkayn advances from apprentice in the first extract to Master Merchant in the third.